Scars
by FantasyXDayDreamer
Summary: Flynn Scifo and Yuri Lowell bonded instantly at the age of 7, forging what seemed to be a beautiful friendship. But when an important person walks back into Flynn's life, their friendship is shattered. Chapter 3 onwards being rewritten.
1. Chapter 1

**So here it is, after about a year and a half of me saying I would finally do it! My re-written Chapter One, of my first ToV fic! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!**

**To all my previous readers, I hope you enjoy this chapter! I know for a fact that it is definitely a lot better than the old version, and now that I finally have my ToV muses back, expect more re-written, more detailed, longer and just better in general chapters! And to any new readers, hi! I hope you enjoy this fic, and also, the next few chapters will be a little on the rubbish side until I get round to updating them, and if you're new to the fandom, or , welcome! c:**

**Please leave me reviews, reviews would be very lovely indeed!**

**-FantasyXDayDreamer**

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The Lower Quarter lived up to its name, literally. Everyone who was unfortunate to only have enough money to be able to live in there was seen as scum and filth by anyone who was more well-off, and as for the claimed "Nobles", they were the butt of their jokes, and quite often spoken about as if the poor people who lived within that part of the city were vermin that could be squashed under their feet. So, they didn't lead a very fashionable life, they struggle to get by and barely have enough Gald to keep them going, but they could smile and shake their heads at the prejudiced, richer citizens of Zaphias, as they seemed too shallow, or too lost in themselves to value family, friendship or anyone else for that matter. All they cared about was themselves, and what was in it for them. As for the Lower Quarter, it was pretty much fair to say they were a community, or a massive family. They stood by each other and took pride in the achievements, or what they strive to achieve, even if it's something that others would see as the most simplest thing in the world. When you're struggling to get by, and living in the part of the city with the worst reputation, just because they weren't as good as everyone else, achievements meant the world, to everyone within the Lower Quarter. What they lacked in money, valuables and big houses, they made up for in heart, and that's what made it worth living in.

One young boy however, felt like the black sheep of the family. Too young to be allowed to play with the older children and too old to be babied by the rest of the adults. There were kids about a year or two younger than him, but he saw them as too young for him, so he tended to stay on his own, and people left him to his own devices. He would tend to find himself looking through barrels and boxes for things, often pretending he was hunting for valuable treasure, or he'd just explore. He had a pretty free reign, as no one really looked out for him very often. He was kindly taken in by the couple that owned the inn after the loss of his parents, and they'd made fine replacement parents for him, it was just a shame they were too busy to spend too much time with him during the day. He didn't mind too much, sometimes he enjoyed being on his own, he could make up his own games and not have anyone taking control of it and giving it "rules". Besides, no one else would be able to join in with his knight training, which only really involved him swinging a stick and hitting a random, inanimate target for a few hours, it kept him entertained, and made him feel like he was one step closer to his dream. He wanted to become Yuri Lowell: Most Brave and Successful Knight, and he strove to achieve it, to make the Lower Quarter proud.

But even then, games in which Yuri pretended he was the best knight that ever lived, sometimes got boring. There was only so much a child could take of being lonely and bored in a place they knew all too well. And, of course, he didn't dare venture past the barrier, especially with the knowledge of the monsters that lived beyond it. Not that he was scared or anything, definitely not. Well, maybe a little, but if anything, he would be more scared of Giselle, one of the two Inn owners, finding out that he went beyond the barrier. She was by far more terrifying than any monster he heard about in stories. Of course, people said she was like how she was because she cares, and in time he would come to accept it. If that was the case, Yuri secretly hoped that she would be the first and last person to care.

Putting Giselle and the thought of going beyond the barrier, Yuri decided on an alternative adventure: following the stairs out of the Lower Quarter. Getting to the Royal Quarter would definitely be a little too ambitious, but there was nothing wrong with exploring where the working and middle class citizens lived, was there? If they were anything like the nobles, then that would be a problem, but from what he had heard, they weren't too bad. If anything, they treated the people of the Lower Quarter like actual people, which was sadly a rare treat for them.

...

The "Middle" Quarter, as Yuri decided to call them, was everything that he could have imagined. It was so much more lively and colorful and lively than the Lower Quarter, and it was fascinating, to him, at least. Some people just passed by completely unaware of how good they had it, but they couldn't be blamed; they probably knew no better and no worse.

Taking in the incredible beauty of the place, Yuri didn't dare try and imagine how the Royal Quarters looked. They probably dressed so much better, and the boy had vague ideas on how their houses would look. It was possible to see a few of the mansions even from where he was standing. They were huge. One was probably enough to house the whole of the Lower Quarter and make them more than happy with the space they got. What stood out the most to Yuri wasn't the size of the houses, the view of the Royal Quarter from where he was standing, and it wasn't even the children around his age playing with each other; it was the child left out from those activities, sat on the wall of the fountain a few meters away from them. He was quite different from them; his blonde hair, which looked like it would normally be in a neat state, looked ragged and a little on the dirty side, his clothes were in a similar state, and unlike the other children, he looked unbelievably miserable. Some people would say he was from the Lower Quarter too, but Yuri had never seen him before, so he couldn't have been from there. Yuri knew everyone, and everyone knew Yuri.

Putting the thoughts of how he had never met the blonde boy before aside, Yuri approached him, not being able to catch his eye until he was up close in front of him.

"Hi," he said with a huge grin spread across his face, he couldn't help it. The chance to finally spend time with someone his age, and maybe even become friends with them, was one of the greatest ideas and thoughts to have hit Yuri's mind. "I'm Yuri. Do you want to play with me? You look lonely."

The answer he received was enough to wipe the hopeful smile off his face completely. The blonde boy looked away, breaking the eye contact that they shared briefly before he muttered his reply.

"I don't want to talk." He sighed, looking away.

"But, you're talking now. What's wrong?" Yuri asked curiously, taking a seat next to the other child, refusing to leave his side. "I just want us to be friends. You look lonely, and I'm lonely too. Do you live here?"

"Sort of." The blonde shrugged, doing his best to cut the conversation short, but he felt a little bad for the dark haired child sat next to him. Maybe he really could relate, and he was just as lonely as he was, and it would be nice to have someone to relate to, and just a friend in general, so he shouldn't try and push him away so quickly. Sure, the child seemed a little talkative, and a bit too excited, but he deserved a chance. "I'm Flynn Scifo. Nice to meet you." He finally spoke, holding his hand out to the boy who, if he heard right, was called Yuri to shake. Although after a few moments of not receiving the hand in return, it went back down to his side. "So, what game do you want to play?"

* * *

**Bleh, the endings a bit poop, but I don't think I could have taken it any further without ruining it a little, so I'll carry on with where it's going once I start re-writing the second chapter. I'm so glad to say goodbye to the old chapter 1, I have to say it was a little embarrassing having to read through it while I was looking for where to begin with re-writing it.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you can't leave me a review because you've reviewed this chapter before, please send me a PM! I would love to know what you thought! Thank you! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello!**

**To any new readers, chapter 3 and onwards are being re-written, as this is an extremely old fic that I started writing, and I want to improve it after reading it over and realising just how badly written all my old chapters were, so bare with me while I do this!**

**To my old readers that might be reading this, I hope you like the new chapter!**

**Don't forget to leave reviews, I'm always happy to hear what people have to say! **

* * *

It wasn't until both the boys realised how low the sun in the sky was that they noticed how much time had passed since they started talking; and that Yuri knew everyone in the Lower Quarter will have settled down by this time – and that they would realise that he wasn't actually there. He didn't exactly have boundaries on whether he could go there or not, and if there was, then they weren't voiced too well.

A part of Yuri was glad that they had finished playing due to the time; in all honesty, he was a sore loser and didn't want to admit it.

He turned to face his newly acquired friend and began noticing qualities he hadn't seen before. It looked like he hadn't seen a clean change of clothes for a few days, or even a decent meal. It made Yuri feel a little bad for him, not even people in the Lower Quarter looked like this. It made Yuri wonder just how long he'd been living on these streets, how no one made a fuss, and how the guards didn't notice. But, then again, no one in the capital seemed to care about anyone but themselves, it was blatantly obvious. Thinking about things like these made him even more determined to grow up and become a knight so he could work his way up the ranks and make a change. He wasn't exactly a fan of the knights, but he wanted to make that change, and he was counting down the years until he could.

After a few moments of silence, which was neither awkward nor pleasant, Yuri finally spoke up. "I should be getting home... You should too." He said, an apologetic tone hidden in his voice as he waited for the response. It was clearly obvious the boy, who turned out to be called Flynn, had no home, and if he was anything like Yuri, he would do his best to hide that fact to get out of hand-outs and people trying to help. Thinking about that made a small part of Yuri want to cry out and beg Flynn to come back to the Lower Quarter with him, because it was so obvious he was not okay, another part of him just told him to back off: it wasn't his business.

This time, the silence was awkward, as Flynn's head dropped slightly at the mention of the word 'home', which was a clear enough answer for Yuri, who now had sympathy written all over his face. He couldn't help it, and now he knew why everyone back at the home looked at him like that; he'd been through more than a kid should've, and chooses to make it more difficult for himself. He couldn't complain about people doing it to him now – he finally understood their point of view.

"Look... Why don't you come back to the Lower Quarter with me? They won't mind..." Yuri said, breaking the silence once again, sighing before he did so. At least he actually got some form of response from what he said this time. The other boy lifted his head slightly, looking a little shocked, and lost as well. Poor kid.

Despite feeling sorry for him, Yuri really couldn't have the patience to wait around for him – just like Giselle didn't have the patience herself. "Well, I'm going to go. See you tomorrow, I guess." He shrugged and waved as he began walking away, leaving his blonde, baffled friend behind.

As Yuri began walking, he heard a small voice calling after him.

"I'm coming too!"

He smiled to himself at that and slowed down to a stop to wait for Flynn. That was the answer he was waiting for. The faint smile slowly turned into a grin as Flynn approached him.

"Last one down there's a rotten egg!" he called, and instantly set off running. Maybe he would win a game against him this time.

...

Of course, Yuri didn't win against Flynn. For a kid who was actually getting weak from starvation and living on the streets, he still managed to be pretty quick. And strong. If anything, Yuri was a little jealous, he could already see a lot of his friendship with Flynn face issues with his jealousy, but hey, if it was a good enough friendship, he'd stick around.

They both reached the Lower Quarter, equally out of breath; although Yuri looked a little more grazed than Flynn ended up. He quickly brushed himself down before looking around the almost-empty street. A couple of people noticed him and motioned over to the Inn, which meant that Giselle had obviously had people on the lookout for him. Yuri nodded and headed straight over, Flynn in tow.

"I think you'll like Giselle." Yuri started, making sure that Flynn was actually following him before he carried on talking. "She's a little, well, very strict, but she's been taking really good care of me since..." he trailed off slightly and stared at his feet, collecting his thoughts before he lifted his head and carried on talking. "Otis is cool! He's really, really nice! Nothing like Giselle, but I like them both the same!" he finished with a grin.

He opened the door to face a couple of terrified-looking customers, Hanks, and an unimpressed looking Giselle. Otis didn't look too pleased himself, although he seemed like a cuddly teddy bear next to a pissed off looking Giselle – anyone would.

What followed was slightly expected – although Giselle being a little more gentle than usual wasn't; Yuri figured he'd have Flynn to thank for that later. He was dragged over to the bar by his arm and sat on it while she looked at the cuts and grazes he got from earlier, shaking her head and sighing, asking how he got them this time. Turned out Yuri coming back to the Inn in this state wasn't possible.

Flynn was stood by the bar, twiddling his thumbs and staring down at his feet. He seemed to go unacknowledged for a few moments, and was perfectly okay with that; seeing as he didn't want to draw attention to himself, and he heard about the Lower Quarter from everyone else. It sounded like they struggled enough to get by and look after themselves without having another mouth to feed.

It was once Yuri was brought down off the bar and sat down at the table with both the Inn owners and Hanks that Flynn was noticed and invited to join the table, although it was more of an order than an invitation.

"Who might you be?" Hanks turned to face Flynn, a soft smile on his face. The last thing he wanted to do was scare the poor kid. "Never seen you around here before. You certainly look like you belong here, though."

Flynn smiled softly. He decided already that he liked Hanks. He didn't seem to be too in-your-face like Yuri, or the woman who was called Giselle; according to Yuri's protests. He was also a lot more welcoming than what he had seen so far. "I'm Flynn, and I'm not from here, I used to live..."

"Upstairs." Yuri finished for him, avoiding the gaze of all the other adults at the table, and letting his legs swing, as he was never the kind to sit still.

As soon as Yuri spoke, both Otis and Hanks shook their heads, and Giselle sighed.

"I hope you weren't any trouble..." Otis muttered; he was all too familiar with the mischief Yuri caused, especially to the guards who came through the Lower Quarter.

"He wasn't." Flynn piped up brightly. "He kept me company. Said I could live here."

A few more sharp looks were aimed at Yuri, who just shrugged, not flinching or showing any kind of emotional response to how all the adults were looking at him.

"He can stay in my room. I can sleep on the floor." He said blankly, as if he had already gone through it with them all. "I should know what it's like to feel on my own, and he had it worse."

And with that, Yuri got up, leaving the others to it. He ignored Giselle ordering him to sit back down and left the Inn, going straight upstairs to his own room. He didn't want to talk any more. If they wanted answers, they should just ask Flynn; not him. Besides, wasn't it everyone else at the Lower Quarter that told Yuri to be as helpful as he could? He was simply helping a friend – a starving, and obvious orphan, to get off the street. He had no idea what he'd done wrong this time.

...

Once he was in his room, he collapsed onto the bed and sighed, curling up on it and pushing all thoughts about the past out of his head. Yuri never cried. Not when the big kids called him names, not when they pushed him over, and not even when he watched the service the Lower Quarter held for his mother. He wasn't going to cry now. That was just pointless, and stupid.

Crying was for kids.

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**Granted, not my best work, but so much better than what the second chapter originally was! Hope you liked it!**


	3. Chapter 3

Well, here it is!

I'm sorry it took so long for those who actually enjoy reading this fic :P I had a major writers block and lately I've been a little busy, but I came across a trailer for _Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike _and got a little inspiration from it :)

I hope it'll work for future reference, and I hope _you _enjoy this~!

Please review it, I love feedback and knowing how to improve!

Thanks!

-FantasyXDayDreamer

* * *

The two boys raced down towards the Lower quarter, one as equally as competitive as the other; but of course, Flynn was in front, and Yuri was behind, running as fast as his short legs could take him: which was not fast enough to make him catch up to Flynn. Flynn only slowed down when he heard a loud grunt and Yuri landed at his feet.

"…I tripped." Yuri mumbled emotionlessly.

Flynn laughed as he helped his clumsy friend to his feet and slowly dusted him off as he checked for any grazes.

"You're a clean freak," Yuri murmured.

"And _you're _a klutz,"

Yuri scowled as he shrugged, unable to argue with Flynn's statement. He flinched as he felt Flynn's hand go over his right knee.

"Do you mind? That hurts!" He snapped.

"Serves you right for not watching your step," Flynn smirked, "besides, there's an inn over there, the owners will probably be able to put a bandage around that."

"Yeah, cause I really want to be lectured by Otis and Giselle again…"

"Huh? Did you say something, Yuri?"

"No… just clearing my throat."

"Are you sure you're going to be okay? You know, with your knee…"

"I'll be fine!"

Flynn shrugged as he carried on walking, leaving Yuri who was following him slowly. The two said nothing to one another on the way to the inn.

...

Flynn led Yuri to the check-in desk of the inn.

"Um, hello, Mrs Inn-Lady, my friend hurt his knee… and we were wondering if you had any bandages… or something." Flynn stammered.

"Oh sure, sweetheart, just bring your friend to me and we'll take a look at it, shall we?"

Flynn looked over his shoulder and nodded to his friend, who came forward trying to avoid eye contact with Giselle.

"Oh, that isn't…" She said as he looked at the little boy, who was now glaring at his friend, "Yuri! Just come here! How do you manage to hurt yourself so much?"

Yuri turned to face Giselle and grinned with a look of guilt, that look that everybody in the lower quarter knew only too well.

"F-Flynn tripped me up…" Yuri mumbled.

"Hey, no I didn't!" Flynn argued.

"You did! I saw your foot stick out!"

"No you didn't! I was miles in front of you!"

"You're a liar!"

"No, _you're _a liar!"

The two were just about to throw themselves at one another, ready to fight one another, that was until Giselle grabbed the two by the shoulders, preventing them from even getting close to scratching each other.

"You two, just stop it! We don't want a scene now, do we?" She growled.

"No, _you _don't want a scene." Yuri replied.

Giselle and Flynn both looked at Yuri with horror and disgust, even though they both knew that this kind of response was natural on Yuri's behalf, but it was a surprise to them that he would actually say that, especially when he knew he was in the wrong.

"Yuri," Giselle said, trying to cover up the anger brewing inside, "You know that you're not allowed to speak to me like that."

Yuri curled his nose at what Giselle had said, if there was anything Yuri hated, it was being scolded about something he said.

"I'm not going to say sorry." He murmured before leaving the room.

Flynn's eyes followed the little boy that had just left the room, when he heard the door slam he turned to face Giselle.

"I'm really sorry about him… I just-" Flynn stopped then turned away to go and catch up with his friend.

...

Flynn walked outside and looked around the small town, and noticed Yuri sitting by the water and splashing it in such a way it made him look like he was half asleep.

Flynn walked over to the fountain and sat next to Yuri, who was splashing his reflection so that it distorted and disappeared before it came back to the surface, only to be pushed away again.

"Are you okay?" Flynn asked, as he watched Yuri do this continuously without even noticing him.

"No. Leave me alone." Yuri responded.

"No, I don't want to. I want to know what's wrong."

"I said leave me alone."

"Well, I'm not going to! We're house-friends!"

"You said it was called room-mates. And you're always right."

"I'm not always right, I mean, so what, I'm a bit smart, it doesn't mean that I know everything and life is just always easy for me. It's not. You should know that."

"I don't know anything! Leave me alone!"

Yuri realized that Flynn would not leave him alone until he got the answer he wanted, which he would not give him, so, without hesitation, Yuri pushed his friend into the water.

"I said leave me alone." He said in a monotone voice.

Flynn felt a little angered by Yuri's actions and pulled him into fountain as well.

"Well, I'm not going to!" Flynn replied

"Fine!"

"_Fine!_"

Before the other had chance to argue again, his face had been slapped, once he realized who did this, he turned to the blonde and slapped him back, once the blonde boy noticed the hand about to make contact with his face, he grabbed Yuri's wrist with one hand, and grasped onto his hair with the other, Yuri flinched as he felt like Flynn was nearly ripping his hair out, and used his free hand to grab a chunk of Flynn's hair too.

"Stop copying me!" Flynn exclaimed.

"I'm _not _copying you!"

"Are!"

"Not!"

"Are!"

"Not!"

Before Flynn has a chance to respond, him and Yuri were already rolling around in the water, kicking, slapping, scratching and grabbing each others hair, although another commotion stopped the two from fighting so they could listen in.

"I don't care, old man! Just give us the money!"

"I-I've told you! W-we can't afford to pay the taxes! M-me and my wife, we've tried so-"

"I've told you! _I don't care! _You owe the empire money and if you fail to pay us that money then we will just have to throw you into the prison cells!"

"No, please! My wife is ill! Y-you can't do this!"

Yuri felt his insides burning up as he listened in to the situation. He suddenly stood up and ran over to the two men, he didn't feel surprised when he noticed it was another knight pestering the people for money.

"Hey, you! Bully! Leave him alone!" Yuri yelled up at the knight.

"Hm? Who said that? Oh, was it you? Sorry, I didn't see you all the way down there! And besides what are you going to do about it?"

Yuri growled and clenched his fist, ready to punch the man.

"No, Yuri! Don't do it! You know you can't hit a kni-" Flynn tried to run towards Yuri before he hit the knight, but it was too late.

The knight was unresponsive, but he kneeled down to make eye contact with the boy.

"I'm not going to forget that, you brat." The knight said, as he spat in Yuri's face.

"You just spat on me, that's _gross!_" Yuri yelled as the man stood up.

He turned and glared at Yuri, and grabbed the old man he was yelling at by the arm and led him away to the upper quarters.

"See, Flynn! You just saw that!" Yuri exclaimed, "This place needs to change!"

"I know… that's why we have to become knights, right?" Flynn responded.

"Yeah… we've got to!" Yuri answered, and then he paused and looked at his friend, showing a lot of concern, "Flynn… y-you won't ever turn into someone like him, will you?"

"I won't if you won't"

The two grinned at each other before going into hysterical laughing.

"Well… from this day on, we shall start training to become knights!" Flynn exclaimed in a determined voice.

"Yeah, but I don't think we'll get very far with pulling each other's hair." Yuri added, before they started laughing again.

"You're right… maybe if we… save up for a sword or something!"

"Yeah, I'm sure someone would sell one to us."

"Oh yeah… well… we'll think of something, won't we?"

"Yeah! And then we'll become the best knights that ever lived!"

"And we'll fire all those meanies! And if they refuse to leave we'll cut their heads off!"

"No! I have a better idea! We'll cut their hands off and feed it to them!"

"But… what if they're vegetarians?"

Yuri stared at his friend and burst out laughing, Flynn looked offended at first, then joined in the hysterical laughter.

"And… we'll be best friends forever, won't we, Yuri?" Flynn asked.

"Of course… you're my brother." Yuri replied, showing Flynn his scarred hand.

Flynn smiled back at Yuri and showed his scar in return, and they both took hold of one another's hand and closed their eyes.

_I will always stand by my brother, and I will always be there for him, even if he doesn't want me or need me, I will protect him, I won't ever leave him._

* * *

I know this fic is soooo short, but I think the chapters are getting a little longer now, and I _am _working on extending the chapters because short chapters _reeeeeeeeeally _annoy me and I actually feel so mad at myself for making some of the shortest chapters in fanfic history :P

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed it, please review and give constructive criticism, however I _do not, _repeat, **_DO NOT_** accept flames.

Thanks for reading~! :)

-FantasyXDayDreamer


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, here is the fourth chapter! This came around pretty quick! Wow! :)

Anyway, this chapter was inspired by _Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike_, _The Opening Departure _by Aiden and the fact that I've been pretty depressed lately (Writing this fic usually helps) This chapter is pretty depressing, but a friend of mine had said this chapter was very emotional, yet beautiful, so thank you, Celeste! :)

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I would like to thank orangepotato and Azure-Wulfe for their reviews on Chapter 3, so I would also like to thank those two, you both rock! :)

Please Read, Review and most importantly, enjoy~!

_-FantasyXDayDreamer_

* * *

_Four years later:_

Flynn let out a loud sigh as Yuri stretched out across the single bed that they had been sharing for at least four years, but no matter what, every night was a pain, especially when Yuri was never still while he was sleeping, Flynn stared out of the little window and saw the sun slowly climbing up into the sky, and sighed again.

Any minute now, the knights would march through the Lower Quarter, their armour clattering loudly, their muffled coughing and maybe even a few of them sniffing back tears, all wishing they didn't have to leave their families, and some will never see them again.

They were setting off for war.

"I hope my father will be okay." Flynn thought out loudly.

"No thanks… I don't want… any ice cream…" Yuri mumbled as he turned over to face Flynn, and the back of his hand whacked him in the face.

Flynn growled in frustration and climbed out of the bed, making sure that he would not wake his friend in the process, even though he always slept, he always woke to any sound of slight movement. That annoyed Flynn to no end, seeing as he had got into the habit of walking at night, he thought of this as time to think about his life, and his feelings.

But not today.

Flynn leaned out of the window and waited for the knights to march through the Lower Quarter, which would most likely wake up Yuri.

Flynn stared out into the distance, as he watched the stars slowly lose their sparkle and faded into the pale blue sky, although he lost interest in the slow process as he finally heard the loud clatter of the knights boots.

He saw a little girl chase after a certain knight, who had removed his helmet to wipe away a tear which was blurring his sight.

"I-I'll see you again, won't I, daddy?" The little girl asked as she ran up to him.

"You will. I promise you will." The man said, holding his daughter close.

"He's lying to you, you won't ever see him again." Flynn mumbled, as he curled his lip in frustration, "He chose to go to war… what is fighting for peace going to do? It only…"

He was cut off when he noticed another man with his helmet off, but this man was familiar to him. It was his father.

Flynn quickly turned away from the window and ran as fast as he could, he didn't want to miss saying goodbye to him, because maybe today was his last chance to do so.

...

Yuri woke up suddenly, and noticed the door close quietly, he noticed that there was knights in the streets of the Lower Quarter, and Flynn's father was one of them.

He quickly threw his legs over the bed and lifted himself to his feet and ran out of the room. He had to be there for Flynn, he couldn't just leave him to watch his dad just walk away, and maybe never come back.

Flynn slowly approached the knight, his helmet held to his hip, wearing a look that was so casual, yet showed so much sadness and pain.

He watched his friends who worked alongside him say goodbye to their wives and children. And he had neither to bid farewell to. Or so he thought.

"D-Dad? Is that you?" An almost silent voice asked.

The knight quickly turned around to see who had spoken, he looked down to find a blonde boy with hopeful, bright sapphire eyes, and the man immediately knew who it was.

"Hm? Flynn! What are you doing here?" The man exclaimed as he scooped his son up into a hug.

"I-I thought I wasn't going to s-see you again so I-" The boy was cut off by his weeping, as he immediately pressed his face into his father's shoulder and carried on crying.

"Shh, it's okay, I'm here aren't I? Shh, Flynn. You're a big boy now. Big boys don't cry, do they? I'll be back before you know it."

However, no matter how hard the man tried, the boy's hysterical tears didn't stop, but the man held him close, the guilt was almost drowning his heart, all the years he spent without seeing his son, without writing to him, and today he was holding him, and maybe even saying his last words to him.

Flynn carried on crying, he didn't care that his shoulder was covered in the metal armour, he just wanted to say goodbye to his dad: the man who he shared such a strong bond with until he left, the man who he hadn't seen in years, but the man who he would always love.

He felt the mans hand pat his back gently as he carried on crying, and once again, he felt like a little kid again and he didn't care. He was with his dad.

...

Yuri ran outside and almost immediately noticed Flynn who was now being held by one of the knights. Although to Flynn, he wasn't just a knight. He was his father, the man he aspired to be, and the man who took the footsteps that he dreams of doing one day.

Yuri watched as the man continued to shush and hold the weeping boy close to him, and he sighed, wishing that he could have a father like that in his life, who he could look up to, and want to be like. But he never had someone like that. He never had and never will have.

...

"Flynn, it's okay. I'll be back." The man whispered calmly as he put his son down onto the floor, "I mean it, I'll come home."

"Y-you really mean it?" Flynn sniffed as he wiped his nose with the back of his pyjama shirt.

"Of course… Look, Flynn… is that boy over there your friend?"

Flynn looked over to where his dad had pointed and noticed Yuri standing there, looking at the floor and wiping his feet against the dust.

Flynn suddenly wiped the tears from his eyes, trying not to let his friend know that he had been crying.

But Yuri just smiled as he saw the relationship between the two, part of him made him envy Flynn for his relationship with his father, but he was glad to see that his brother would be okay.

"Flynn… I have to leave, but I really do mean it. I'll come home."

"I know you will…"

The two looked at each other in silence before the man joined the rest of the knights in front, he looked back and waved to the blonde boy, whose tears were still running down his glistening sapphire eyes.

"Goodbye…" Flynn whispered, as he watched the man walk away, just wishing he could run after him, begging him to stop, but he knew he couldn't. He had to let him go and do his duty.

...

"Flynn…"

"Huh? Oh, Yuri…"

"Was that-"

"My father. He left me and my mother to join the Imperial Knights a few weeks before I met you."

"I see…"

"Were you close to your father, Yuri?"

"I never had one…"

"I'm sure you did, tell me! What was he like? Was he nice?"

"I've told you, I never had one."

"You must've done!"

"Flynn! Really, I don't know him, he means nothing to me!"

Flynn nodded as Yuri said this, and inside, Flynn felt his sympathy for Yuri grow even more. He knew that Yuri had been raised by people in the Lower Quarters, but he had no idea that his real parents had just left him to cope by himself, and inside, Flynn felt awful for having a father that he loved, when Yuri didn't even know who his parents were.

Flynn lowered his head as he watched Yuri walk away, and this time, Flynn felt like he owed Yuri some time to himself to think things over.

Flynn turned his head and watched the knights leave through the Lower Quarter, he lowered his head as he thought about his father, what if he died while he was out there? If he did, Flynn would never be able to tell him how much he meant to him, because he would be gone. Forever.

He felt a drop of water land on his nose and he looked up into the sky: the sun was now hiding behind dark grey clouds which suffocated the once brightening sky.

He felt another drop land on his cheek, which was then followed by many more, hitting his hair, his arms, his whole body, but he didn't care.

He closed his eyes, and let the tears and the rain fall down his face.

* * *

**_RANDOM POP QUIZ QUESTION:_** If you think you know why I used the rain in the last scene, please mention it in a review, and if you win... I'll write a fanfic dedicated you or something :3 First or only person to get it right wins! :D

Anyway, I hope this was to your liking! Don't forget to review! But if I were you, I wouldn't leave any flames.


	5. Chapter 5

Wow, I am updating _fast _now! :D

Anyway, this is chapter five (of course) I've tried to be a little more descriptive, and in this chapter, I'm trying to focus a little more on Flynn and Yuri's relationship, yet still linking back to Flynn's father, and also... even though I've only had two entries for the random pop quiz, because they're the only two reviewers, but you know what, it's quality not quantity, and these two are just the _best _reviewers ever!

So I would like to thank _Orangepotato _and _Azure-Wulfe _for not only reviewing the chapters with positive comments and good ways to improve, but for boosting my confidence in this fic! You two are just awesome! :)

Anyway, I will announce the winner at the end of this chappy! :3

Enjoy, read & review!

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_

* * *

It hadn't felt like long since Flynn had said goodbye to his father, however the rest of the year seemed to have gone quickly, two months after his father had departed from the capital to fight the Great War, Flynn's birthday had been and gone, followed by Yuri's, which was six months after.

The seasons passed quickly, Flynn had remembered that spring was just about ready to bloom when his father had left, and by the time his birthday came around the trees of Zaphias, which had once seemed like they had been dead for many years, had been covered in bright pink blossom, which had also covered the streets of the city, shortly after, the season was then followed by summer, when the blossom had eventually died away and the sun was high in the sky, giving off a lot of heat into the quarters, where children were running around half naked and instead of wearing dresses which reached their ankles, women had now started wearing shorter dresses or even skirts, while men roamed the city without their shirts on.

Come late August, evenings had began to fall quicker, and the bright, green leaves from the trees slowly turned into a golden-brown colour before they fell gently onto the ground beneath them, and instead of frolicking about half dressed, the kids were now dressed a little more sensibly, and were now rolling around in the leaves or throwing them at one another, until their mothers had come outside to scold them before telling them to go inside before their dinner got cold, and then about two or three months later, it had finally been the day that Yuri either waited for in anticipation or dreaded, but either way, the night before was always a pain, seeing as he would barely ever sleep, and by the time he finally does fall asleep, he wakes up shortly after, but this year, Yuri was uncontrollable with excitement, Flynn had believed this because of all the years that Yuri had been laughed at or just rejected for his age and was just relieved to be older. And by the time Yuri's birthday had passed, December had made it's way towards Zaphias, it had brought a cold winter breeze with it and froze random patches of footpaths throughout the lower quarter, and due to Yuri's clumsiness, it had caused almost constant slippage, which resulted in Flynn rolling his eyes before helping him up.

But no matter how much the seasons changed, or how the sky or leaves changed colours, rain still fell, the same rain that splashed against his skin, the same rain that pattered against the window frame where he sat and waited… waited for the knights to return home. But it never happened, no sound of the knights loud, metal armour, just the sound of falling rain.

By the time Christmas Eve had arrived, a massive blanket of snow had covered the streets and the dead trees, and by the time morning came around, little kids and even young adults had immediately gone outside and started building snow forts, snowmen, made snow angels in the ground, and a massive snowball war had started in the Lower Quarter, which Flynn and Yuri both took part in without hesitation, but Yuri tried to hold back any signs of anger or jealousy about the fact that Flynn could always hit someone every time he threw a snowball at them, and Yuri nearly always missed, and not to mention he was a little clumsy and his reactions were usually a little too slow.

"Yuri! Duck!" Flynn yelled from behind one of the snow forts.

"Duck? But it's winter! And ducks are never around he-" Yuri was halfway through his confused explanation until a snowball smacked him across the left side of his face.

Yuri looked a bit shocked at first, and then turned to Flynn who was biting his lip so strongly that blood was dripping a bit, when he noticed Yuri was staring at him, he went into a fit of laughter.

Although this laughter stopped when Flynn had noticed a knight making his way through the street, and quickly stood up and chased after the knight.

"Um, excuse me!" Flynn yelled after him in a desperate tone.

The knight stopped and turned around to let the person know that he had heard them, he noticed a blonde boy, with bright blue eyes which showed hope.

"Yeah, what's up?" He asked.

Flynn looked up to make eye contact with the man: he was quite tall, had matted ginger hair, probably from wearing the helmet for the whole morning, and sparkling green eyes which, at this moment, showed concern.

"D-do you know when the Great War is over?" Flynn asked, shyly.

"No… I'm afraid not." He answered, looking at the floor in what seemed like sadness.

"Are you going there?"

"No, I'm going home to spend Christmas with my family."

"I see… sorry to bother you…"

"It's nothing, really. Have a good Christmas."

"I will. I hope you have a good one too."

The man smiled sympathetically at the boy who now had his head down in sadness, and turned away and left the city.

Flynn smiled back guiltily and turned away, not expecting to see Yuri standing there.

"Are you okay?" He asked, showing concern.

"I'm fine." Flynn responded, smiling a little.

"Hey, Flynn, there's something I want to show you!" Yuri exclaimed, before he ran off, heading towards the upper quarters of the town.

"Yuri! Wait for me! And watch out for the… ice."

...

Yuri ran around the corner, and straight towards the fountain in the center of the town in the upper quarters.

"Look over there, it's the fountain where we met." Yuri said, pointing to the fountain he was standing close to.

"What of it?" Flynn asked, shrugging.

"It's frozen, look."

Flynn rolled his eyes a little before heading over to the fountain and looking into the water that was believed to have been frozen, he seemed a little confused when he saw his distorted reflection staring back at him.

"What? Yuri this is nowhere near frozen!" Flynn exclaimed, as he turned away from the fountain, and his face met the sudden coldness of a snowball.

"Gotcha!" Yuri yelled, grinning.

"That's it! I'm so gonna get you!"

"Come on then, blondie!"

"Oh, don't worry! I will!"

The two spent what felt like 10 minutes frolicking in the snow, it wasn't until they paid attention the clock tower that they knew they should be back home.

"Oops, looks like we lost track of time, there!" Yuri laughed a little, even though he wasn't laughing because he was amused.

"Yeah… maybe if we're quiet on the way back, they might not have noticed we were gone."

"You're right. Let's go."

…

The two snuck into the little room they still shared, then they closed the door before they started grinned at each other.

"Anyway, I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm pretty tired." Flynn mumbled, as he stretched.

"Oh, okay. Night." Yuri replied, seeming a little distant at this point.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

Flynn smiled weakly at Yuri as he headed over to the single bed that they still shared, but fortunately for Flynn, Yuri hadn't grown much, if anything, he hadn't grown at all, but his awful habits of twisting and turning in his sleep still carried on, and in the end, Flynn just had to accept it was probably something that Yuri wouldn't grow out of.

He smiled a little as he slowly took his coat and the shirt he was wearing off, before quickly replacing them with a long sleeved pyjama shirt, and did the same technique he had used with his top half of the body: doing it as quickly as possible, to avoid Yuri even catching a glimpse of his body, Flynn had no idea why, but he hated people seeing him undressed.

After he had changed, Flynn got into bed, and began to feel a little drowsy, all he could remember was seeing Yuri standing by the window, murmuring something, as if he was talking to somebody in secret. Then after that, his mind went blank.

…

A few minutes after Flynn had got into bed, it looked like he was already fast asleep, so Yuri went over to the window and stared out at the endless fields of snow, he stared out into the distance, but saw no signs of any knights.

He closed his eyes and bit his lip.

"Please. Let Flynn's dad be okay… that's the best Christmas present he could ever have…"

Yuri turned away from the window, and noticed Flynn was fast asleep, Yuri smiled guiltily.

"I guess you'll just have to settle with me as 'family' for now."

* * *

I hope you enjoyed that chapter! I have to say, this is probably one of my best! :3

Anyway, the person who submitted the best answer was Orangepotato, the rain had been used to represent sorrow, but also, they had mentioned something else about the rain which I just could _not _ignore, so it will be used in a future chapter! :3

If you just send me a PM over fanfic with what kind of thing you'd have in mind for the tribute fanfic, then I'll get to it straight away! (Mind you, Tales of Vesperia is the only "Tales" game I have played, so far! :P )

Thank you for reading! Please review! It'll be appreciated much! 3

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_


	6. Chapter 6

I am actually _so _surprised about how quick I'm updating this! (I hope it doesn't look rushed, because it hasn't been, I've just managed to write it at a quicker pace!) And, hey! This chapters longer than the others... I never thought it would be, haha... ^^;

Anyway, this chapter is where some of the seriousness kicks in, and I'm not going to describe what happens because that would be a spoiler! ^^

So, read, review and enjoy! :D ... and review! ;D

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_

* * *

Yuri woke up much earlier than he usually did, but this morning, there was a strong feeling of excitement building up inside him today, and he grinned as he got out of bed, trying not to disturb the sleeping Flynn as he did this, and began to dig around underneath the bed, until he felt a box covered in paper. It was Flynn's Christmas present.

When he pulled it out, his grin had stretched from ear to ear, he looked up at the bed that Flynn was still lying upon, and began to consider waking him up, but the thought of him being more excited to watch Flynn open the present from him than Flynn probably would be made Yuri cringe a little, but something inside Yuri told him that this year's present would be perfect for him.

Yuri stared outside and noticed that there had been more snowfall overnight, so he hid the present back under the bed, and headed outside.

He smiled as he opened the door and stared at one of the alleyways in the Lower Quarter, covered in snow, snowflakes falling elegantly onto the ground, where the freshly laid snow was, with no signs of any footprints, it was just lying there, undamaged and undisturbed.

After a few seconds of standing there watching the snow slowly fall, his patience was beginning to run out, and he turned around and ran down the stairs to reach the streets of the sleeping town of the Lower Quarter, even though Flynn's warnings, and, very cautious warnings echoed through his mind, it hadn't stopped the boy from going down them at full speed, causing him to slip over, and tumble down the rest of them until he hit the ground of the streets face first.

He immediately sat up after his face had hit the snow, and an expression of shock was upon his face, he brushed the snow of his pyjama shirt, and looked at the pattern he had imprinted on the once smooth and neat blanket of snow, and laughed at the shape he had left behind.

"Much better than a snow angel." He thought to himself as he grinned.

He slowly stood up and began to walk around the empty streets slowly, feeling the coldness of the snow bite at his feet, as he carried on leaving behind little footprints, which continuously followed him, along with the sound of the soft crunching that the snow made every time his feet had made contact with it.

He smiled as he stared up at the dark blue sky, and watched the snowflakes spiral downwards towards the ground, overlapping the once disturbed layer of snow.

…

Flynn woke up a couple of hours later than Yuri had, the sky was slightly brighter than it had been at the time when Yuri had stirred, but the snow was still lightly falling to the ground.

Flynn sat up and rubbed his eyes quite roughly with his fists, and noticed Yuri sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, holding his feet, which were red raw.

"Yuri… what happened to your feet?" He asked, in a stern tone.

"Snow." Yuri mumbled, as he grimaced at the sight of his own feet.

"How did you do that?""Played in it without shoes or socks on…"

"What? Yuri! I told you that you could get frostbite if you weren't careful!"

"I know…"

"Let's hope you don't."

Yuri lowered his head, gesturing to Flynn that he should've listened, Flynn nodded, letting Yuri know that it was stupid to have done that.

Their relationship was sometimes useful in cases like this, because they could always understand each other's gestures just by years of experiencing arguments, fights and the rest.

"Oh! Flynn!" Yuri exclaimed in an excited voice, that made his friend jump.

"Yeah?"

"I got you a present!"

Yuri reached under the bed, and brought out a rectangular-shaped box that had been wrapped in blue tissue paper.

"Merry Christmas!" Yuri said, happily.

"Th-thank you, Yuri. I've got you one too!" Flynn responded, as he stood up, and went over to the chest of drawers that they shared, exposing a box of similar shape, but it had been wrapped in a dark coloured tissue paper, "Merry Christmas!"

The two grinned at each other before they began to open their presents.

Yuri had immediately started attacking at his present, ripping up the tissue paper into shreds, as Flynn was carefully opening his, trying not to rip any in the process.

Once they had removed the paper, they both noticed that there was a box in front of them, they both held their boxes by their ears and shook them lightly.

Then they lifted the lid off the box, and slowly lifted the object that was inside in front of their faces.

"A wooden sword!" They both cried out at the same time, laughing excitedly, but also the fact that they had got each other the same presents was humorous.

"En Guard!" Flynn yelled out at the top of his voice, holding his wooden sword at the handle, and pointing the 'blade' at Yuri.

"You will _never _defeat me, Flynn Scifo! For _I _am Yuri Lowell! And I will be the greatest man that will ever live!"

"_Man? _You will never see manhood, because _I _will defeat you!"

"Bring it!"

The two looked at each other before they started laughing again.

"We wouldn't be very good enemies, would we?" Yuri grinned.

"I would! I'll be the best enemy that ever lived!"

"Not if I beat you to it!"

"If that's possible!"

…

Giselle moved her ear away slowly from the door and grinned as she listened to the two play fighting, but on the inside, she knew that one day, the two won't be able to frolic around like they were today. One day, they would grow up.

…

"Giselle!"

Giselle came out of the kitchen to notice the two grinning boys, smiling up at her.

"It's snowed! Look!" Flynn cried out, "and it's so deep!"

"The fountain is frozen too!"

"Oh my, really?" Giselle exclaimed, acting as if she was surprised.

She just smiled at the two, she knew how inseparable they were, how close they were and how they enjoyed playing with each other every day.

She remembered the first day she had met Flynn, and she had known straight away that Flynn would have given Yuri some happiness in his childhood, and Yuri had returned the favour.

"Oh, you two?"

"Yes?"

"Do you want to help me prepare Christmas Dinner for everyone in the town?"

"Yes please!"

…

Giselle laughed as she had asked Flynn to crack some eggs to prepare one of the cakes she was going to make, and when she turned around, had noticed that there was shell, egg whites and yolk all over Flynn's hands and even in his hair.

"Come here, you! How did that get in your hair?" She laughed, as she picked out egg shell and wiped off egg white from his blonde locks.

Once she had cracked the eggs for Flynn, she had asked him to watch the vegetables while she helped Yuri make the cake mixture, and also making sure that he wouldn't eat it while he thought nobody was looking.

"Giselle!"

"Yes?"

"I think the vegetables hate me! They won't stop bubbling and they keep making a hissing noise!"

She bit her lip to prevent herself from going into hysterics, here she was, with one boy who was clueless about what the hell to do in a kitchen, and one boy who had immediately adopted the skills of cooking, even though so far he had just made a cake mixture, but had no mistakes with cracking the eggs or using uneven amounts of flour and sugar, it seemed like it was just right.

…

By the time Giselle had told Flynn and Yuri to go up to bed, they were grinning from ear to ear, talking about what a great day they had, laughing about certain events that occurred throughout the day, such as Flynn screaming about overflowing water from the pans, and from Yuri trying to walk across the ice on the fountain before it cracked and he fell in.

When they returned to their rooms, they both automatically went to different corners of the room to get changed, making sure that one couldn't see the other, and by the time they were in their pyjamas once again, they reunited when the both climbed into bed, and straight to the same place they had slept at since they were seven.

"Yuri, are you awake?"

"Yeah."

"Today was fun, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"I… thank you…"

"For what?"

"Everything."

"Flynn… we will always be friends forever, won't we?"

"Of course we will."

"Good…"

That was all the two could remember about the conversation they had that night before they had both fallen into a deep sleep, dreaming sweet dreams, and smiling as they thought about their brother, and how they would stay together forever.

…

The celebration of the new year and a new moon had passed, and Flynn had returned to being the quiet boy he once was when his father left, and just waited for him, he sat by the window, or stood by the fountain and waited.

There was occasional times when he and Yuri battled each other with the wooden swords they exchanged for Christmas, both determined to train properly before joining the knights.

Although Yuri would drop his sword and go of into a sulk after a few attempts of trying and failing at beating Flynn, and when Yuri did this, Flynn would just sit down, and wait…

…

Seven months had passed since their latest new year's celebration, and Flynn still heard nothing about the Great War, and most days were spent locked up in the room he and Yuri still shared, and he was constantly moping and worrying about the day his father would return.

Flynn's birthday had been two months earlier, but he had requested that Yuri would not get him anything for him.

Yuri had just shrugged and said "suit yourself," in a frustrated tone before leaving the room and coming back many hours later.

It was at this point when they began to feel like the relationship they used to have was beginning to drift away, Flynn was isolating himself, and Yuri just chose to make himself distant from Flynn.

Giselle began to notice this and started to worry for the two, she had noticed that Yuri had seemed really moody lately, and didn't really want to talk to many people, and argued with people who he knew when he was younger, such as the older kids that left him out, but she knew that Yuri wouldn't hold grudges like that.

She had also noticed how Flynn hardly ever spent any time out of his room, and occasionally she would bring up food to him, and make sure if he was okay, but he would just shrug or give her one worded replies, as would Yuri.

She sighed deeply, she really thought that these two would help each other out, and never thought their friendship would have ended like it had done.

…

One day, Flynn was sitting by the fountain, admiring the aque blastia that had kept the water flowing until he heard a distant sound of metal armour clanging together, and he had automatically jumped to his feet when he noticed the first knight march through the Lower Quarter, and his eyes started to follow every knight that followed after him.

As his eyes carried on chasing other knights that carried on through the town, his eyes finally locked on bright blue sapphire eyes, just like his, matted light brown hair, and a helmet tucked under his arm. His father.

"Dad!" Flynn yelled at the top of his voice.

The knight turned his head to see the face of a young boy, with messy blonde hair.

"Flynn!" He exclaimed, as he ran towards him, and hugged him, holding him closely, "See, I told you I'd be back, didn't I?"

"I knew you would…"

"Wow! Look at you!" The man exclaimed, as he held his son at shoulders length, "You've grown so much! How old are you now?"

"Thirteen."

"Already? I must be turning into an old man!"

"You're not old, dad!"

"I am," he laughed, then paused, "Flynn, I was wondering… do you want to move back into that house we used to own, just you and me? I'll come home at the evenings, and I'll check up on you when I can?"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" Flynn exclaimed, jumping up and down with uncontrollable excitement.

And at that, the two left the Lower Quarter, smiling at each other, while a boy with long, raven hair watched from his bedroom window.

_So much for being there for me. Thank you, brother._

* * *

I know this is quite a sudden change between the relationship they used to have, but if you have seen certain clips from Tales of Vesperia, or Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, it does show that Flynn and Yuri have these on-and-off relationships with eachother, I just need a reason behind the grudges! Haha!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please do review! I like the reviews MUAHAHAHAHA :3

I'll be back with another update soon~!

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_


	7. Chapter 7

Here is the seventh chapter of my very... progressing fic XD

I really hope you aren't in a good mood right now, this chapters really serious, and quite depressing, and it's probably going to ruin your mood, so I'm very sorry if it does :P

So much for all the cute fluffyness :(

And also, this chapter does contain some swearing, and also... there is a bit about spanking, but I just had to add it because at the beggining of the game, the Inn-dude (Who I named Otis XD) was just like "Has the old lady given you a spanking yet?" and as funny as I found this (seeing as I see nearly everything as an innuendo :P) hilarious, but I just thought I should add it in, because the Inn-Dude always seem to say stuff about the Inn-Dudette (Giselle) that made her seem a little violent and agressive here and there. :P

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! And as always, read, review & enjoy! XP

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_

* * *

Yuri felt anger build up inside him as he watched the blonde boy make his way to the Public Quarter with his father. No goodbye, no "wait, I want to talk to Yuri first!", he just left, without even looking back, did he even remember that Yuri existed, or did he just want to get the hell out of the Lower Quarter, which felt like Flynn's home from day one?

Yuri clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, he knew that was the last he would ever see of Flynn Scifo, he tried, and failed, at holding back the fat tears that were now rolling down his cheeks, into his mouth, and dripping off his chin. He continuously told himself that he was not crying because he was sad, but because he was furious, yes, he was furious.

"You are a liar, Flynn Scifo! Your friendship was a lie! Everything's a lie!" He roared, as he grabbed his wooden sword which was lying by the door, and broke it in half, then into quarters, and by the time he was done, what had once been a gift from someone he once knew, was just a pile of wooden shreds which were now in the bin.

He glared down into the bin, and tears were still rolling down his face. He wanted to scream. He wanted to yell. He wanted to swear at the top of his voice.

"You are a bastard, Flynn! I hate you so much!" He cried out, before he threw himself onto his bed and pressed his face into his pillow and screamed.

…

"Here we are, Flynn." The man said, grinning, as he put the key into the door and slowly turned it.

Flynn watched as he waited in anticipation, his face lit up as he watched his dad swing the door back, and he ran straight in.

"It doesn't look any different!" Flynn exclaimed, laughing, as he ran through each room of the house, starting with the kitchen, the bathroom, the master bedroom, his room, and after a few more rooms, stopped at the living room.

Flynn slowly looked around the living room, he admired the posh tables, couches, rugs and decorative vases.

But one thing that never left the corner of his eye, was the fireplace, and above that fireplace was a horizontal canvas: their family portrait.

He slowly stared at the portrait, admiring the features of a family of three, a young woman, with long, wavy blonde hair which had been tied back into a bun, sparkling silver eyes, ruby lips which were curved into a smile, wearing a pale lilac dress, with silver bows on each end of the sleeve and a white long-sleeved shirt underneath, her right arm was resting on the right shoulder of a little boy, whose hair was still spiky, his sapphire eyes sparkling away, his mouth stretched into a grin, which showed gaps in his teeth, wearing denim dungarees with a white t-shirt, and behind the two, was a young man, with wild light brown hair, deep blue eyes staring straight ahead, and his closed lips had formed into a massive smile, and the stubble around his jaw area had framed his face perfectly.

At first glimpse, this would have looked like an ideal family for anybody, but to Flynn, something was missing, but he couldn't put his finger on it, no matter how hard he thought, he just couldn't remember who, or what, wasn't in the portrait when they should have been.

…

Giselle was closing up the bar for the evening, while talking to her husband, Otis, when their conversation had been interrupted by loud yelling and screaming.

They turned and looked at each other straight away. Yuri. Something was wrong with Yuri.

Otis quickly stopped cleaning the tables, and followed Giselle out of the Inn door, and headed up to Yuri's room.

…

Yuri gripped onto his pillow, his face still pressed into it, even though it was beginning to get absolutely soaked due to his constant tears, and his head was beginning to ache, and he could almost hear the rhythmic banging as the pains started running through it, but on the inside he didn't care.

No pain was stronger than what he was feeling now.

He only wished that he had never met that blonde boy, never made friends with him, never promised him that he would always be his best friend. He should have seen this ending coming.

He felt the pain of his heart being ripped out by that boy, the boy who he considered his friend, his _best _friend, his _blood-brother. _His real brother.

But it was a lie.

The sobbing sounds that Yuri was making had suddenly stopped as he heard his door open, he wasn't going to cry, he wasn't going to let anyone know he was crying.

"Yuri?" A voice asked, softly. It was Giselle's.

"I'm fine." Yuri replied in a muffled voice.

"You aren't."

"I am."

Giselle turned to look back at her husband, moving her head slightly to the left, hinting that he should go back to closing up the Inn.

When she watched him leave, she silently closed the door, and walked over to Yuri's bed, before softly sitting upon it as she put a gentle hand on the boys unsettled back, and she started to shush him, as she listened to him softly weep into his pillow.

"What happened?" She asked, almost silently.

"F-Flynn, h-he…"

"What did he do?"

"His d-dad… came back… and he… left me… h-he… didn't say goodbye." The boy said between sobs.

Giselle slowly moved both her hands onto his back and helped him to sit up straight on the bed, before she looked into his eyes and drew him close into a hug, feeling his cold tears fall onto her shoulders.

"Yuri… he was just happy to see his dad."

"H-he's gone back up… to the rich people, with his dad. He didn't even look back… or anything… I'm not going to see him again!"

"I'm sure that would be your reaction if you saw your dad walk through the Lower Quarter, aren't you?"

"No, I don't even know what he looks like, so how could I be happy to see him if I don't know who he is or what he looks like?"

Giselle paused for a minute, as she thought about what he had said, but she didn't reply, she just wrapped her arms around him and let him cry.

…

Flynn woke up one morning, and looked outside, the city was smothered in dark grey clouds, and there was no space for the sun to creep through, and rain was falling heavily against the ground, and the roof of the house, making all the rooms inside echo with the violent pattering sounds.

It had been two and a half years since Flynn had moved in with his dad, and they got on great, his dad came home in the evenings, and they spent most of their time in the garden, playing about with toy swords, or sticks, and they discussed the duties and responsibilities of being a knight.

But recently, his dad told Flynn that he would be on a mission set by the Commandant, Alexei, and would not be home for at least two or three days. This was six days ago, and Flynn waited every night for him to return home, his hopes always lifted when the clock reached around half six, which was the usual time he had returned home, but come seven, he never showed up, and Flynn stopped waiting and tried to kill time.

But, today, he was woken up by an urgent knock on the door, and it wouldn't stop, so Flynn dragged himself out of bed, forced his way downstairs, and after frantically searching for the door key, he found it and slowly opened the door, feeling slightly relieved that the people who were knocking still stood there.

It was two knights, who probably worked with his father.

"Are you Flynn Scifo?" One of them asked.

"I am, yes."

"We… we are here bearing terrible news."

Flynn felt his heart shatter inside, as his lips started to tremble, and tears were brewing in his eyes.

"We are sorry to say this, but… your father was assigned a mission, he didn't follow the orders and he…"

"No! He can't be! He's not! Please tell me he's not!"

"I wish I could…" The knight answered as he dropped his head, "I'm sorry."

Flynn let out a loud wail as he fell to his knees and began to cry hysterically, tears falling down his face as fast as the rain was hitting the ground, he slowly curled himself up into a ball and sobbed uncontrollably.

…

"Yuri! Wake up, you lazy boy!" A loud voice boomed, causing the sleeping teenager to shoot up from a deep sleep.

"Giselle! You don't have to yell so loudly, I'm only over here." He replied, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles.

"We told you that we'd start needing your help around the bar, and you said you'd help, so get to it!"

"Okay, just give me five minutes, and I'll be there."

"You better not go back to sleep."

Yuri curled his lip as she left, and forced himself to stand up.

It had been at least two and a half years since that boy he used to know just disappeared out of the blue, but as soon as Yuri's mood started to improve, Giselle's got worse, it was almost as if she hated seeing him happy, but Yuri knew that wasn't the reason.

But as Giselle got stricter, Otis seemed a lot more friendlier and sympathetic towards Yuri, and had tried his best here and there to try and help Yuri out of awkward situations or arguments with Giselle, which were very common as soon as he reached the age of fourteen.

Yuri sighed as he violently pulled one of his draws out, and threw his clothes around until he found a plain white t-shirt, which was wrinkled up, Yuri quickly held his nose to it.

"Clean enough," he thought to himself before throwing it on, and then started digging for a fresh pair of boxers, followed by an old pair of ripped, black trousers.

Yuri rolled his eyes at these clothes, there was nothing he hated more than wearing hand-me-downs from people around the Lower Quarter.

He quickly slipped on plain black trainers without tying them up, and ran out of his room, being as quick as possible to avoid being scolded by Giselle again.

…

"Yuri! Where _have _you been?" Giselle yelled, as soon as she watched him walk through the door.

"Getting ready,"

"Just what time do you call this?"

"I thought you could read clocks."

"Don't you dare answer me back!"

"Whatever,"

"Giselle… just leave the poor kid alone, he's barely even awake and you're already yelling at him." Otis said softly.

Giselle just rolled her eyes before throwing a white apron at Yuri's direction, Yuri caught it, then tied it around his waist.

"You're going to trip over those laces." She said in a monotone voice.

"I don't care," He responded, shrugging.

"Don't be like this with our customers, you know what happened last time."

Yuri just nodded, trying to hide the fact that he was cringing at the thought of being spanked by Giselle, to him, it was a punishment that only little kids got, but he was glad that Giselle had at least waited until all their customers had left before lashing out on him.

Yuri had walked over to Otis to discuss things until their first customer of the day had walked in and sat a table, at this, Otis had gently tapped his shoulder, and gestured towards the table. Yuri nodded before heading over to the man, holding a pen and paper in his hand.

Otis watched and laughed as Yuri continuously nodded, and crossed out things he had written on the notepad, before writing something else in their place.

When Yuri returned, his lip was bleeding, which was probably caused by him biting his lip out of frustration, and not trying to yell at the customer.

"Bloody big appetite, not to mention, he couldn't make up his fucking mind!" Yuri exclaimed in a muffled voice.

"Yuri," Otis said, in a warning tone, while holding his hand out for the piece of paper which had the orders on it, "Don't use that language again."

Yuri nodded, as he leaned against the wall casually and waited as the customers orders were being prepared.

"Right, well that's… two stews, three dumplings, four slices of chocolate cake, bowl of spaghetti and six strawberry parfaits, is that right?" Otis asked, as he handed a tray full of food to Yuri.

"Think so, geez! For an old man he doesn't half eat a lot! I mean, seriously, that could feed, like… the whole city or something!"

"Just… get the order to him, you know what Giselle will turn out like if you don't do it ASAP."

"I know…"

Yuri sighed as he set out the many plates of food onto the table that the man was sitting at, and all of them took up most of the space of the small wooden thing.

Just as Yuri turned around to take the tray back to Otis, he noticed a figure of a blonde boy, probably around his age, if not older, and a few inches taller than him.

Yuri curled his nose as he noticed who it was, and it was definitely the last person on earth he would want to talk to.

He couldn't even hold back the anger inside him long enough to take the tray back to Otis, he stormed over to the table with his fists clenched, and by the time he reached him, he struck at him with his right fist.

"What the hell?" The blonde boy exclaimed, as he stood up.

"You know what!"

The blonde quickly kneed the dark haired boy right inbetween his legs, causing him to gasp, and hold onto his manhood quite tightly as he grimaced at the pain.

"Bastard!" He responded, quickly kicking his opponent on the back of his legs causing him to fall onto the floor, bringing Yuri down with him.

At this the two were rolling around on the floor, punching, kneeing, grabbing hair, biting and insulting each other with very strong language, although it hadn't been very long until Otis had gone over to Yuri, grabbed him beneath the armpits and pulling him up off the ground, keeping a firm grip to prevent him pouncing back on the boy who he had been punching only a little while ago.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Yuri spat, still being held back by Otis.

"I…"

"You know what? I don't care! And neither did you! It was all about your precious little daddy, wasn't it? Was he the one you turned to when you felt like shit? Was he the one that always made you laugh or smile when you were upset? Was he the one who let you stay in his room and share his bed when you had nowhere to go? Was he the one who scarred his fucking hand because he considered you his brother, and loved you like one! So much for being friends forever, so much for being like brothers, and you know what? You can take your dreams about being a knight and shove them right up where the sun doesn't shine because right now, I couldn't care less!" Yuri yelled, still violently fighting against Otis's firm grip, "Let me _go, _Otis!"

By the time one of Yuri's arms slipped out of his grip, he quickly made a run for the door, avoiding any more confrontations or arguments, because at this moment, he just wanted to be alone, to be a child again, and to just cry the pain away.

* * *

Looks like there's been another Great War.. T^T

I just thought I would have to add some drama into this, and I also observe Flynn and Yuri's relationships, whether it's in clips of the game, or of the film, it's all got to lead somewhere, and what's a story written by me if it's not got any depressingness in it? :P

Anyway, pleeease review! Cause I like reviews, and they also inspire me! :3

Hope you've enjoyed this fic so far!

And I'll be back with another update really, really soon! (And I mean _really soon_!)

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_


	8. Chapter 8

Heyy~! It's me again with another update!

Sorry it was kinda slow (by my standards)

I've kinda discovered that if my mood improves, I get writers block! (Damn you, happiness!)

Anyway, in my opinion, this isn't my best work, and it was absolutely _impossible_ to write.

So here's some useful advice: **Don't write with writers block.**

Trust me. It was hell, I've spent at least four or five hours writing this today, didn't help that I felt like crap this morning too, and overall, this took about two or three days to write... ._.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this, please review it!

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_

* * *

_Three years later_

…

Yuri closed his eyes as he placed his hands on the desk, and let out a loud sigh, ignoring the man sitting behind the desk who just raised an eyebrow at him.

"Can I help you?" He asked, in a slightly frustrated tone.

"I'm here to join the… _knights_." Yuri let out a louder sigh as he said the word.

"Well, that does make sense, seeing as this is where you register for the knights." The man replied, handing Yuri a sheet of paper and a pencil, "Just fill that in."

Yuri curled his lip and pulled a face as he walked away from the desk, he had no right to speak to him like that, considering that he was about to join the knights, and one day, he might end up having to save his ass, and then he'd be grovelling at his feet.

Yuri smirked as he laid out the scene in his head:

"_Oh, please, Yuri Lowell! I didn't mean to be so rude to you when you signed up for the knights! I had no idea you would be the greatest one that ever lived! Please do spare me!"_

"_Well, thank you for saying I am the greatest knight ever. However, the way you spoke to me is just simply unacceptable! And for that reason, I will remove your head from your body!"_

"_Oh no! Please no, not that! I have a wife and kids! Okay I don't! But please!"_

Yuri smirked a little, but realized that it was time he grew up, and shook the thought out of his head and stared down at the piece of paper in his hands. The application form.

"_Damn you, Yuri! What are you doing? Just fill your name in and give it back. It's that simple._" Yuri thought to himself.

Yuri slowly sat down, gripping the pencil firmly in his right hand, and stared at the form that was now sitting on the table which was placed very closely to the couch he was sat upon, but in Yuri's view, the table seemed like it was miles away from him.

He gritted his teeth and slowly brought the pencil to the paper and began to jot his name down.

"_I'm doing this for the Lower Quarter._" Yuri thought to himself.

…

Flynn made his way through the bustling streets of the Public Quarter, occasionally smiling, nodding or occasionally giving the odd "Hello," here and there.

He did his best to get his way through the crowd in the least violent and most polite way possible, because today was the day he would sign up for the knights.

The day he would say goodbye to the house he had once called home, the day he moved on from all the farewells he had to say.

By the time he had reached the registry office, he felt like he'd gotten into a street fight of some sort, feeling like he had just been beaten up by multiple people, but that hell was over, he slowly brushed his shoulders with his hands before he walked towards the door to the registry office.

He slowly opened the door and surveyed the room, it was quite small, very modestly decorated with cream coloured couches, plain mahogany tables, a light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a dark wooden floor that matched the colour of the tables beneath him.

While his eyes were slowly moving around the box sized room, he felt something barge into his shoulder quite powerfully, he turned to see the back of someone's head, with long, straight, raven coloured hair flowing past his shoulders, and his fists clenched.

Flynn swore that he could see a massive scar on his right hand. He felt his eyes widen, before he quickly blinked and came back to reality.

"_It isn't him,_"Flynn thought to himself, "_It can't be."_

"Yoohoo? Anyone there?" A rude voice interrupted his thoughts.

Flynn quickly shook his head and stared over to a desk which was about eight metres away from where he was stood.

"Sorry, I was thinking." Flynn replied idly.

"Well, think quicker!"

"_Geez, no wonder that other guy walked out looking furious,"_

Flynn slowly walked over to the desk, telling himself to keep calm and to not punch the arrogant man across his smug face.

He smiled politely as he took an application form from the desk and turned away to fill it in.

"Excuse me," the man said as he turned around, "I think you might want to use a pencil. If you need anything else, like help filling in your name, please hesitate to ask."

"I think you'll find I'm perfectly capable of spelling my own name, thank you." Flynn responded as politely and patiently as possible as he took the pencil and walked away.

He slowly perched on one of the cream couches and looked at the form in his hands, no matter how hard he tried to focus on the form, the person who had barged past him only a couple of minutes ago couldn't escape his mind.

"_It can't be him… he wouldn't join the knights by his own free will… would he?_"

Flynn did his best to push it out of his head as he started to fill in his form, however, he hesitated when he noticed a certain section of the application form:

_Hometown._

He bit his lip as he read the word over and over again in his head. He leaned back to think about the answer to what seemed like a simple question to some, but to him, it was almost impossible.

"What's the matter? Forgot how to write?" The man rudely interrupted.

"No, like I said, I'm just thinking." Flynn said, his tone of voice starting to show that he was irritated, "_Geez, is this guy going to go on for much longer?_"

He quickly returned back to filling in the form, ignoring the hometown section until he was finished.

By the time he had, he looked back up to the top of the page and stared at the word again, before quickly filling it in and giving the form back to the man behind the counter.

"About time," The man said, before watching Flynn leave, and then he mumbled to himself, "Bloody Lower Quarter scum…"

Flynn just turned around lifting a right hand, before lowering it and walking out of the door, and noticed an unbelievably tall and skinny man, who's body was probably in proportion with a pole. He tried not to smirk when he noticed the person standing next to him, who probably wasn't even quarter of his height, and very large. They were definitely a few years older than him, but hearing them, they sounded like two six year old boys arguing over a new toy.

And listening to them, he had no idea who was more painful, them or that man stuck in the dead-end job of being the rude, moody man that handed out sheets of paper and pencils behind a desk all day.

...

"What, Yuri? _You _joining the _knights?_ You aren't half funny!" Otis laughed hysterically.

"Go ahead, make fun, but it's true." Yuri replied, a tone of laughter showing in his voice as a grin slowly stretched across his face.

"Well, don't have too much fun without me."

"Aww, that's what I was looking forward to!"

"Shame. Well, do us proud, kiddo!" Otis said, ruffling Yuri's hair, "And, hey, at least you'll be away from that old lady for a while!"

"Trust you to look on the bright side of me going, eh? I know that way deep down you'll be missing me so much when I'm gone!" Yuri smirked.

Otis mimicked wiping a tear away from his eye with his right index finger, and placing his left hand over his heart, and sighed dramatically.

"Oh, yes, we are all going to miss you so much!"

"Of course you are!"

"Speaking of which, you better clean out that room you've been staying in all your life. We'll be needing the key back."

"I knew you were waiting for this day!"

The two returned smiles at each other before heading towards the stairs that led down into the street, and of course, he was oblivious to the staircase before him.

"Oh, Yuri!"

"Yeah?"

"You're about to miss that… staircase." Otis sighed before closing his eyes tightly and resting his forehead on his right hand, especially when he noticed the door to the inn was opening, "_Giselle won't be happy._"

Yuri turned around to respond to Otis, before he noticed what he was saying, and was too late to turn his attention the fact that he just missed a stair and was about to tumble down.

As soon as he landed to the hard wooden floor beneath him, he looked up and noticed a man standing over him. Hanks.

"You're a little light on your feet, aren't you, Yuri?" He asked, laughing a little at the stunned teenager.

"Sorry, Hanks. I was in a rush." Yuri mumbled before getting to his feet.

"You're gonna be a great knight, Yuri!" He heard Otis yell from behind his counter, still laughing.

"Yuri? _Really? _A _knight?_"

"Yeah… go on, laugh."

"Oh, no, that's good news! It'll keep you out of trouble too, I guess."

Yuri smiled before quickly leaving the room to avoid any more conversation.

_-Two days later-_

"Here's the room key, Giselle!" Yuri said, cheerfully.

"You're leaving so soon?" She asked, surprised.

"You'll forget me before you know it."

Giselle slowly looked up and down at the young man she had known, and looked after since he was born. Instead of wearing his usual clothes, he was now dressed in the same armour that the knights wore, his long hair resting over the metal shoulders of the outfit.

"Don't do anything stupid or reckless." She sighed.

Yuri gave her look suggesting that he was going to ignore exactly what she said, because, being a knight, it's possible that he would have to end up getting into quite a few battles with monsters, or criminals.

"You're going to, aren't you?"

"Afraid so."

"Well, just… take care of yourself, okay?"

"Will do." He answered, smiling before turning away and making his way towards the door.

Otis slowly walked towards his wife, before putting a comforting arm around her shoulder.

"You're gonna miss him, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

...

Flynn slowly read through the lists of people's names, skimming through each list.

He wasn't on the list for posts in Zaphias, or the desert, Aspio, Deidon Hold, but in fact, sent to a small town out in the sea, believed to be around the same area as Capua Nor and Capua Torim.

As he slowly read through the list of names, he noticed one very significant name beneath his:

_Yuri Lowell._

"_No way," _He thought to himself, "_That's impossible._"

Flynn shrugged the thought off, trying to think of worse people that he could be stuck with, or the worst thing that could happen, in the end, he decided that somebody he used to know wasn't going to get in his way of becoming a successful knight.

He slowly turned away from the many lists of names and headed towards the gate, which led to a crowd of knights who stood before the commandant, Alexei.

Flynn made his way towards the front of the crowd, determined to hear what Alexei had to say.

As he was pushing through the many people, he noticed somebody who was standing to his left hand side, long, raven hair, charcoal grey eyes and a very bored expression upon his face.

He felt himself feel slightly shocked and intimidated by this, but quickly conquered his feelings and decided that he really wasn't going to get in the way of his achievements.

It was time to let go of the past, and forget Yuri Lowell.

* * *

Aaaagh! I'm so glad that this chapter is finally finished!

It felt like it was impossible to do! T-T

Anyways, I hope that _you _have enjoyed this, please don't forget to review!

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_


	9. Chapter 9

Hiii~! FantasyXDayDreamer _finally _with a chapter update! I know this probably isn't my best work, but I have to say, I'm quite proud of this!

I'd really like to thank orangepotato first, for being very supportive and helpful via reviews and inbox :)

Anyway, this has been awfully difficult to write these past however long it was I last wrote a chapter :P And also, while I'm rambling, I'm also working on re writing chapters 1,2 & 3 while the next chapter is in progress! ^^

But while that's going on, I hope you enjoy this chapter, please read and review! I luvz teh feedback! :)

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_

* * *

Yuri glared over at the blonde hair knight who was riding on the horse-like creature next to him. His name stuck in his mind, his face, his voice, and it was driving him insane.

He _hated _the boy who was at least two metres away from him, and if he was any closer, Yuri thought he would've snapped and pushed the blonde off of his steed.

He both knew and accepted that Flynn would have been in the knights as well as he himself, but what kind of cruel fate had to bring them together to actually make eye contact at the induction, let alone sent to the same post, even though it was miles out from Zaphias?

Yuri knew it. The world was out to get him, and wouldn't give up until he was driven mental. But he had more strength than that, what's the worst one single bastard can do?

"Yuri?" A soft, concerned voice asked.

Yuri was awakened from his thoughts as the voice sounded through his ears, however, he didn't turn his head to face the person who had just spoken, he knew whose voice it was, and the owner of that voice was perhaps the one person he would still never talk to if he was the only surviving human, besides him, after some sort of massacre.

Instead, his head just faced the pathways ahead, while his eyes focused on the ground, showing absolutely no emotion.

"What?" He finally spat in a vicious tone.

"I… How are Giselle and Otis?" Flynn replied, stopping to think over his words, his voice getting quieter throughout the sentence.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Yuri replied in a sarcastic, yet quite aggressive tone.

"Look, Yuri… I'm sorry, I'm sorry for leaving you behind at the Lower Quarter, I'm sorry for hurting you, I'm sorry-"

"Shut _up! _I don't care! Just… save your breath, okay?" Yuri yelled, before kicking his horse on the sides, encouraging her to carry on into a canter.

Flynn let out a loud sigh, as both of his hands, which were holding onto the reigns, lowered and relaxed, letting the reigns slowly slip out of his grasp, and taking the weight off the horses face, letting him believe he was now in control, and began to gallop at full speed, with Flynn still on his back, gripping onto the saddle for dear life.

Another knight suddenly rushed to Flynn's side, in order to help him through the situation.

"Flynn, put your arms around his neck!" He yelled, as he stared at the blonde knight, who was gripping onto the saddle so hard, his knuckles had gone pale white, and his eyes were firmly shut, "Flynn wrap your arms around his neck!" The knight repeated.

"What? I can't do that!" Flynn exclaimed, his eyes shooting open, his blue eyes wide open with horror.

"Dude, it's about to kick you off!" Yuri yelled, in the distance, his horse standing still, and Yuri's expression blatantly showing that he was amused by the situation.

"Flynn!" The knight yelled, still trying to get the young knight to do as he was told.

Flynn slowly wrapped his arms around the horses neck, closing his eyes again and gritting his teeth through the process, preparing for an uncomfortable landing.

"Flynn, use your right hand and grab the reign."

Flynn's arms were still wrapped around the horses neck, as if he was hugging it, and his body language was still showing that he was terrified of the idea of failing.

Yuri watched the scene from a distance, getting used to the view of Flynn's fear and began to get bored, he yawned and sighed exaggeratingly. Flynn was going to be a boring knight.

...

By the time the two had reached their post, which was in a small town, full of smiling faces, surrounded by a beautiful, sparkling light blue sea, terraced houses occupied most of the streets, and at the futher end of town, stood an elegant-looking mansion surrounded by stables and knights heading out or returning, which of course gave a hint to both Yuri and Flynn, that this was where they would be staying during their time in the Knights.

After tacking up his own horse, Yuri looked over to the stable opposite, where Flynn had just exited and began walking out, and, of course, Yuri saw this as a good opportunity to start winding him up.

"Heh, I thought Flynn's super amazing Knight Daddy would've taught him to ride a horse. Oh how I was wrong!" Yuri said in a cruel, mocking voice.

"Shut up, you!" Flynn growled, grabbing onto Yuri's collar.

"Hey, hey! Calm down there! You don't want to show yourself up _already, _do you?" Yuri asked, sarcastically, smirking at Flynn's reaction, and pointing over to a group of Knights which had already started to gather.

Flynn sighed as he released his grip on Yuri's undershirt, and shot him a quick daggered glare before walking away.

"Oh, Flynn! How is your dad anyway?" Yuri yelled after him.

Flynn quickly turned around, and walked back towards Yuri, and delivered a swift punch to his face.

"Oh, this again! Sure thing!" Yuri shouted, before returning the blow.

Two twins from a distance watched the fight, their arms crossed, and shaking their heads, their ginger bangs following along, their armour representing their role in the Knights.

"Do you think we should stop them?" The taller one of the two asked.

"I think that's probably best, I don't think they're giving a good first impression," The other replied.

Just as Flynn was about to deliver another blow towards Yuri's face, he was suddenly held back by a pair of quite strong, yet frail-seeming, arms.

"Get off me!" Yuri yelled, trying to fight back with another pair of arms.

"Hisuka," the taller one of the twins asked, "who are they?"

"The Captain said they must be Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo." The other replied.

"Oh no… Shastere… I don't think they're going to like the idea of sharing a room…"

Suddenly, the two brawling knights, quickly escaped the grasp of the twins, and both turned at exactly the same time to face them.

"What?"

...

Flynn quickly scanned the hallway until he found the appropriate door, and began to unlock the door, but just as he opened it, he knew he wouldn't be the first one in.

Yuri quickly scurried to the bed closest to the window.

"This bed's mine," He said quickly as he threw his belongings and weapons across the room.

"Yuri! Don't throw weapons around!" Flynn exclaimed, quickly rushing into the room.

"Oh yeah, we wouldn't want to hurt the floor would we?" Yuri replied, turning around, placing a hand on his hip, a tired expression upon his face.

Flynn sighed as he walked over to the bed closest to the door, placing his sword and shield gently down by the bathroom door, and leaving his bag by the bed, and looked over to Yuri's bed and watched as the raven haired boy unpacked his own bag, throwing underwear and clothes about.

"There's drawers, you know." Flynn said.

"I'll do what I like, it's my side of the room."

Flynn simply shrugged as he walked over to the chest of drawers and carefully placing his own clothes in, carefully stepping over Yuri's belongings.

"You know, it's gonna get so painful living here with you," Flynn said as he was putting clothes away.

"Fuck you too," Yuri grunted in reply, lying down on his bed and staring at the ceiling.

Flynn rolled his eyes at the response before turning away and not saying another thing.

The rest of the evening had passed by very slowly, it also felt tough to sit next to Yuri at the dinner table without being reminded of childhood memories, and the Yuri Lowell that probably didn't exist any more, and of course, Flynn was mocking himself on the inside, he promised himself to forget, and here he was dying to get the old Yuri back.

After dinner, both Flynn and Yuri had been introduced to their mentors, which were in fact, the two ginger twins from earlier on, holding them back from the fight: Hisuka and Shastere. And, of course, both had already received a scolding from the scene they had caused almost immediately after arriving.

And that was pretty much the highlights of Flynn's evening before deciding he should go to bed, after working himself up at the situation with the reigns, and because he had an early start, and that was about all he could remember before his head hit his pillow.

...

Flynn suddenly woke up stood before a huge, dark mansion in the middle of a forest, around nothing else, and even then, the surroundings mansion still felt like it was a lot quieter and a lot more deserted than they should have been.

Suddenly, Flynn heard footsteps sound behind him, he reached his hand to his back to get his sword by automatic gesture, however, felt no weapon, so his hand retreated to his side, before he turned around to face the person headed towards him.

Flynn's eyes grew with horror as he recognized messy hair and blue eyes, and even if it was impossible to tell in the dark, the perfectly framed face he had was very significant to him.

"Dad…?" Flynn half-whispered to the figure who carried on walking towards him, and then walked straight through him, "What…?"

He slowly watched as his father carried on walking towards the mansion, a sense of confusion ran through him immediately after his dad walked _through _him. How did that happen?

However, he saw no point in asking himself, and began to follow his dad's footsteps carefully as they both headed towards the door of the mansion.

The mansion was a tall, wide building, with grey masonry, and floor length windows on each floor, and even the door itself was intimidating, with the knocked which had the face of a roaring monster on it, however, his father had not used the knocker, instead he had just let himself in through the polished golden doorknobs, unaware of his son's presence, he let himself into the mansion, with Flynn following behind.

"Oh, Mr Scifo, you don't give up do you?" A rough voice chuckled.

"Give yourself up, Barbos, or things won't get pretty!" His father roared.

"Ignoring your orders, eh? That's not good. Not for a goody two-shoes knight."

A huge figure suddenly appeared from the shadows, he had one eye, a fake leg, a fake arm, and what seemed to look like a quadruple chin, and way too many meals in his stomach.

Flynn watched as his dad suddenly struck at Barbos' face, causing the rather large man to step back from shock and confusion, before appearing angered.

"You really shouldn't have done that," Barbos growled, before swinging his fake arm towards his dad.

"Dad!" Flynn yelled.

Flynn grimaced as his dad hit the hard wooden floor beneath him, and shuddered as he watched Barbos slowly plod towards him, and knelt down by his side.

"So, how's your wife and kid?" He sneered.

"Keep away from them, you bastard! If you hurt them I swear-"

"Oh my, you are quite aggressive, aren't you? I was just asking about their wellbeing."

Flynn watched in confusion, and more questions ran to his head. Who was this man? How did he know about him and his mother? What did he mean by "You don't give up, do you"?

"You have such a handsome face." Barbos said, softly, as the back of his hand caressed his cheek, "It's such a shame that it's going to be so… hideous by the time we're done with you."

"Hideous by the time we're done with you…" Flynn repeated to himself, getting even more curious.

"Wh-what do you mean, what's going on?"

"Oh, Mr Scifo, you of all people should know that nobody should get in our way, and they don't get away with it, especially knights. We hate the lot of 'em."

Suddenly, Barbos pulled out a material bag from behind him, which was moving quite frantically.

"Do you know what's in here? Rats. Very hungry rats."

"They speak highly of you." He remarked sarcastically.

"That really wasn't clever. Maybe we should get this done with quicker. Stay still now."

Flynn suddenly felt sick, he knew what was about to happen, and he knew he was in a terrible dream, but he felt trapped, tears began to roll down his face as he noticed his father was still lying down, probably paralyzed from fear.

"Dad, _run!_" Flynn screamed, but his dad remained locked in place.

Barbos slowly opened the bag, and over a dozen rats fell onto the body of the young knight, climbing under his armour, nibbling at the skin beneath the underclothes.

Flynn flinched as his father screamed, grunted and cried from the pain of the rats eating away at his face, groin, legs and the rest of his body.

Tears were rolling down Flynn's cheeks before he even realized he was crying, and as skin turned to blood, blood slowly turned to flesh, and bones were now revealed, Flynn threw his head back and screamed at the top of his voice.

...

Yuri suddenly shot up from where he lay down at exactly the same time as Flynn had, he quickly reached for the light switch and looked across at his roommate, who was covered in sweat and tears. Part of Yuri felt awful for him, but another side felt he deserved it.

"Dude, you just woke me up," Yuri mumbled, as he rubbed his eyes and walked towards the bathroom.

"Sorry. Bad dream." Flynn replied.

"Oh yeah? What about?" He asked from the bathroom, and he waited patiently for a reply.

"My father."

Yuri rested both his hands on the bathroom counter, and lowered his head before letting out a loud sigh.

"You wouldn't understand," Flynn said, coldly.

"No, I wouldn't. I'm going back to bed."

"Sure thing, but be careful Yuri, that floorboards loose."

"What?"

Before long, Yuri was face first on the floor, an image of the younger him suddenly sprung into Flynn's mind and he started laughing, as he got himself out of bed and sat Yuri on a chair.

"You've not changed at all, y'know. How are you? Did you hurt anything?" Flynn asked as he checked both of Yuri's feet.

"I'm fine, and you've not changed either." Yuri replied in an almost monotone voice, but in the corner of Flynn's eye, he could see that there was a lopsided smile on Yuri's face.

* * *

I bet you weren't expecting that! ^^

Anyway, I know that I put an awful lot of coldness between their relationship since Flynn left, but, hey, the little kids they used to be are still inside! :3

Please review, I'd really appreciate that! And please read orangepotato's Dance With The Devil, because if you like this, I can garuntee you'll love that fic! :)

Thank you~!

_~FantasyXDayDreamer_


	10. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, I'm extremely sorry for the _massive _delay on this fanfic, hopefully none of you have given up on it, because I absolutely loved how much people were enjoying this fanfic, and I'm SOOOOOOOO sorry you all had to wait for so long!**

**I'm also going to apologise again, but this time this apology is in advance because this chapter has pretty much been forced, as I made myself write this over the course of about three hours, and it's not been easy because I haven't touched the game Tales Of Vesperia, or the film The First Strike, so my knowledge of everything has gone completely blank, I'm afraid. I also promised ages ago that I would rewrite the first few chapters due to shortness, bad spelling and bad grammar, and I will get round to this eventually, when I've got enough time for it all, because trust me, I've only written this in free time or when I wasn't procrastinating, and it's not easy, especially while you're slaving over it with a load of medication and Lemsip making you feel like shit.**

**I would also like to ask you guys a massive favour, I'd really like you to tell me if I've got the twins' names wrong, because I've seen so many subbed versions of The First Strike, I don't know which names are real and which ones have just been badly translated.**

**I'd also like it if you guys could remind me of the name of the guild that Barbos was in? It's completely slipped my mind, and I keep getting it confused with The Black Hand Gang, because I've been spending a lot of time revising that for my history course, and I don't think many ToV fans would be particularly happy if I'd actually used Black Hand Gang. xD**

**Anyway, I really hope you guys like this, I've tried soooo hard on this for you all! Please review! I want to know what you all think! Thank you so much for bearing with me for so long! Oh, and there's a bit of fluffiness in the beginning, I hope you guys will like that!**

_**~FantasyXDayDreamer**_

* * *

_The next morning_

The dream Flynn had that night had not left his head, but what he really wanted to know was who this Barbos was, what he had done, how he know his dad was married and had him, and, most importantly, why his dad would go after him. Flynn was the kind to just shake off a nightmare, but this one wasn't leaving him alone, it was following him everywhere he went and he couldn't push it away.

His thoughts were disturbed by the bathroom door swinging open and hitting the wall behind it, revealing a half-dressed Yuri, with sopping wet, long, raven hair.

"Morning," He said with a cheerful tone to his voice before he started shaking his long wet locks in a dog-like way, which produced little droplets of water to go flying off the ends of each strand of hair, and landing in all kinds of places in the room, and Flynn.

"Yuri," Flynn sighed, "have you ever heard of a towel?"

"Yup. There's one in there, didn't want to use it."

Flynn got up from where he sat and made his way towards the bathroom, where Yuri still stood in his half-naked glory.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Flynn mumbled.

"Why, what are you doing?" Yuri asked, his eyes widening with curiosity.

Flynn ignored Yuri's question and made his way over to the towel rack, and not saying anything as he quickly pulled one off, and made his way back towards Yuri, reaching out for his shoulders.

"C'mon." Flynn said in an almost patronising tone.

"Seriously? You aren't my mother, Flynn!" Yuri exclaimed, trying to push himself away from Flynn.

"And you aren't my child; I shouldn't have to dry your hair for you." He remarked, simply tightening his grip on the other knight's shoulder, "It won't take two minutes, you're making such a fuss!"

"That's because my hair's fine!"

"You'll catch a cold if you just leave your hair like that!"

"No, no! It's fine!" Yuri almost yelped, before running away from Flynn, and slipping over on the puddle that his sopping hair had left.

"All the more reasons to dry your hair before you leave the bathroom," Flynn said with a smirk.

"Sorry, _mother._" Yuri scowled.

"Apology accepted." Flynn replied, before roughly drying Yuri's dripping wet locks and laughing to himself every time a load of soaking hair smacked him in the face and stuck to his cheek.

...

It had been another hour before the two had finally left their room, due to the delay of Yuri's hair. Unfortunately, Hisuka and Shastere were two people who did not like to be kept waiting, and had to suffer while waiting for the two to finally get out of the quarters.

The two girls stood there with their arms folded over their chests as they waited for the two to approach, the scowls on their faces growing as they got closer.

"You're late. You two better have a good excuse." Hisuka said as they stopped face to face with one another.

...

_The Lower Quarter, Zaphias._

The Lower Quarter was usually quite a cheerful place, despite the poor quality of life its residents lived, children were usually running around giggling, screaming or chasing each other, while dogs made an attempt to join in, cats lurked in the shadows far away from all the excitement and noise, the man who runs the little food stall would usually be shouting at the top of his voice about how good his prices were, housewives were either watching the children play, discussing with one another, or hanging clothes out, while the men played with the younger children, or were working on reparations any part of the quarter would need, Giselle and Otis would be down in their Tavern, serving the regular visitors, and Hanks would stand by the fountain watching.

However, today was different, and the feelings were mutual in the other quarters of Zaphias, for today the emperor of the Capital had passed away and his people were in mourning. Alongside the talking of the emperor's passing was the rumours and conversation of who was the next person to take on the throne. Most conversations turned into massive discussions or arguments about the Capital, and the competition that would be occurring between Princess Estellise and Prince Ioder for the throne in the next couple of years. But in the Lower Quarter, conversations about the loss of the emperor subtly turned into their own loss of Yuri, because ever since he left, nothing was the same.

...

After a tiring day which had been crammed full of doing errands around the town, Yuri had started to make his way towards the Knight's quarters, swinging his sheathed sword back and forth in his lazy right hand.

"Yuri," a voice behind him spoke.

"Huh?" Yuri mumbled, turning around, "Oh, hey, Flynn."

"How about that sword fight we never got round to doing that Christmas?" Flynn offered, smiling challengingly before pulling his sword out of its sheath.

"I thought you'd never ask, Mr Scifo."

Yuri returned the smile, before pulling his own sword out and holding it against Flynn's, the sound of the metal from the two weapons clashing rung through their ears. This time, no giggles, smiles or childish threats were getting in the way of the battle the two were about to have.

"Ready, Yuri?"

"Always ready."

The two circled each other before suddenly running at their opponents, their swords high in the air, the two weapons clashed again, making another metallic ring, this was followed by a repeat of the same thing, and then for a third time until Flynn knocked Yuri down with an effective blow.

Yuri quickly jumped onto his feet, and struck at Flynn, but he'd jumped out of the way to quickly.

"You'll have to try harder than that, Yuri!" Flynn taunted, striking at Yuri again.

"Holy crap, Flynn! I didn't think you were this good!" Yuri said in between uneven breaths as he avoided the attack.

"Well, you thought wrong, Mr Lowell!"

Yuri muttered a few cursed words as another powerful blow knocked him to the floor, followed by another, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't return the strikes, even if they were perfectly timed, Flynn would just hit back right before him without failiure, and eventually, Yuri began to grow tired and started to give up on fighting Flynn, until the final blow knocked him down and he didn't get up.

"Good battle." Flynn said, offering a hand out to Yuri, who lay on the floor, staring up at the sky.

"No it wasn't. I was awful." Yuri sighed, his eyes not moving from the fading clouds.

"You'll get better, Yuri. I promise." Flynn replied, his hand still stretched out.

Yuri slowly got up without taking Flynn's hand, but his eyes were locked onto his, and it stayed that way for a few moments until he finally opened his mouth to say something.

"Well, someone has to be better than you at something one day."

After saying that, he gave him one last cold look in the eye and turned around and walked away, his dark hair swinging from side to side as he carried on walking casually as if the battle and the conversation they just had never happened.

The images of Yuri's charcoal grey stones of eyes stuck into Flynn's mind, and he sighed as he saw how distant Yuri was, and Flynn felt so helpless as he had so much to say to his long lost brother, but the more he tried to fix the broken bond, the more distant Yuri seemed to be.

Flynn sighed as he watched Yuri get both physically and mentally further away from him and began to wonder if their friendship would ever fix, or if what was going on was just an on and off thing. But whatever it was, all he wanted was for it all to fix completely. Yuri was the only family he had left, but at the moment, Flynn was losing him too.

...

The two twins watched as Flynn slowly began making his way towards the Knight's quarters himself, after standing there, just watching his partner walk away, and then just staring into space.

They both exchanged confused looks as the blonde disappeared from their sight. A few locks of ginger hair fell across one of their faces as they turned their head to look at their sister in the eye, both of them were equally confused.

"What do you think happened there, then?"

* * *

**I thought I'd try and end this on a curious, yet quite upsetting note, so hopefully I didn't fail too miserably at that.**

**I have to admit that the beginning wasn't particularly the best, and I'm honestly not a big fan of this chapter. At all, but I guess my opinion doesn't matter just as long as you guys are enjoying what I'm writing.**

**Please leave me a review, I'd appreciate it greatly. :3**

_**~FantasyXDayDreamer**_


	11. Chapter 12

**Hey, another update!**

**I'm quite impressed with how quick I managed to produce this chapter, however I'm not sure if it's good quality, I was only focusing on trying to make Raven's accent look like it sounded right, and trying to use a few more metaphors, don't ask why, I just absolutely love them.**

**Anyway, I think this is the most heartfelt chapter I've ever written because this has been linked with some of my own experiences, it has also been based on a few lines from a song by one of the bands I absolutely love, Good Charlotte. The song is called Emotionless, which was written about Benji and Joel Madden's father, who walked out on them and left them to suffer, it's such a beautiful song, and it's awful to know what they're feeling, but so amazing to know they pulled through it, so I reccomend you listen to it, it's all I've been listening to while writing this, because I felt like some of the lines used described what has happened throughout the story so far. **

**Warnings: Language, self-harm, character spoiler. (Just in case no one's actually met Raven yet, you never know who's new to the game.)**

**~FantasyXDayDreamer**

* * *

"_I'm writing to you  
Not to tell you  
That I still hate you  
Just to ask you  
How you feel  
And how we fell apart  
How this fell apart"_

_(Emotionless - Good Charlotte - The Young And The Hopeless)_

Flynn returned to the room that he and Yuri shared, and found Yuri swinging in one of the chairs at the table by the window, charcoal grey stones still represented his eyes and he stared at the wall in front of him, showing no emotion in his face or body language whatsoever.

"Yuri," Flynn said as he approached the chair opposite the one the raven haired knight was sitting in, "What's wrong? You've been like this since you lost that battle."

"What's it like being perfect, Flynn?" Yuri asked, his gaze not moving from the wall before him.

Flynn let out a deep sigh as he took the seat he was once stood by and looked directly at the person who was once his closest and only friend, and even though the two were at eye level, Yuri's focus was still on the wall, making Flynn feel like he wasn't even there.

"I don't know, Yuri. No one knows." He finally said, still looking into the two stones on Yuri's face, "No one's perfect."

"Bullshit, Flynn. You're good at everything, everyone loves you and wants to be around you, and you spend your time trying to get on my good side."

Flynn grimaced as Yuri spoke, and sat in motionless silence for a few moments before he turned his right hand over, revealing a scar on his right palm.

"Remember this? Do you remember the day we shared blood and told each other we'd be there for them no matter what? That we'd stand by each other, and never leave?" He asked in a demanding tone, each rhetorical question showing more emotion.

"Not this again, Flynn. You might be smart, strong and sure you look mature, but you're so fucking naive! How old were we Flynn?" Yuri yelled, the stones crumbled away and showed deep charcoal eyes, which shone from angry tears brewing up, and his fist landed on the small wooden table, making a loud thud, making both him and the blonde boy jump slightly at the sudden reaction.

Flynn stared at the fruit bowl that just lost its contents to the thump both it and the table received, and watched as it tottered and halted to a stop. Once the porcelain bowl stopped, he looked down and focused on his metal boots that covered his feet, doing anything to forget what Yuri just said, and trying to ignore the pain of the metaphorical blade that pierced his chest.

"Answer me! How old were we?" Yuri yelled shakily as he tried to hold back the tear that was now rolling down his face.

"Seven." Flynn replied in a monotone voice.

"And how old were you when you decided to just leave me in the lower quarter with no one else?"

"Thirteen."

"What else did I promise you around the time we were seven?"

"That we'd be best friends forever."

"Six years isn't forever. Wake up, Flynn."

"What about the battle we just had? You seemed happy at the time I challenged you. I thought we'd forgiven each other."

"I wanted to beat you at something for once, but it seems that it's not going to happen any time soon. And don't be stupid, Flynn. I'm a cold bastard now and it's your fault." Yuri spat before abruptly getting up from where he sat and shoved the table, causing the porcelain bowl to fall from where it sat, and out of the open window, and with that, the younger knight stormed out of the room, violently slamming the door behind him and leaving the blonde knight alone again.

The bowl landed a few inches away from a man who was stood eavesdropping on the two arguing boys, and it smashed causing him to jump back slightly and stare at all the orange-tan coloured shards that were now spread across the floor.

The man didn't look too well-groomed: his black hair was tied back and extremely wild, unruly and by the looks of it; knotty, his sideburns that rested by both his ears simply added age and roughness to his face, his eyes were a nice shade of light blue, but were also dull and lifeless at the same time. He wore an oversized purple piece of clothing, somewhat like a cloak crossed with some sort of jacket, with black and yellow patterns around the sleeves and the collar downwards, underneath the cloak was a deep pink shirt which was accompanied by a belt with a gold buckle, his pants were black and looked extremely baggy on the legs, from the knee below, it looked like they had split and been replaced with deep red material and a few stitches, although, they probably weren't, and to finish the look, the said pants were tucked into his neutral black boots, which had a slight heel, probably worn to make him look slightly taller without making it obvious.

...

Flynn leaned over the bathtub to reach the shower to turn it on; pulling his arm away as quickly as he could once it turned on, avoiding the freezing cold water that poured out at first. He sat at the edge of that bathtub with a towel wrapped around his waist. He stared at the scar on his hand and sighed, his eyes shifted from the scar to the sword which was on his bed. Without hesitation, he got up from where he sat and approached the blade, when he thought about it, there was absolutely nothing wrong with just giving up on waiting for something to heal when it won't ever heal. Within seconds, blood was slowly flowing out of the newly opened scar, at first, Flynn had flinched at the sudden sharp sting, but then he just watched the blood roll down his hand, and showed no emotion. He closed his bleeding hand and made a fist as he slowly walked back into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, the slightly blood-stained sword now lay on the floor, the bright red and silver reflected the light that hit the exposed areas of the blade and body fluids.

...

Yuri perched on the edge of a bridge, overlooking the sea which was reflecting the dark blue from the sky, the bright, twinkling stars and the full silver moon. He held his right hand out in front of his eyes so it was clearer to see it. He admired the bruise that was growing on it from when he had whacked the table earlier, and turned it over to reveal the scar that was still there.

"It's a bit risky ta be out dressed like that, kid." A rough voice behind him said.

"Why?" Yuri asked, still admiring his hand.

"The guilds hate the Knights. It's a long story. But if you ain't careful, one o' them could see ya' and may just push ya' off."

"I couldn't care less. They'd save me the job of having to throw myself off."

"Hey! You're young, ain't ya'? Ya don't wanna be throwin' away your life like that."

Yuri sighed and lowered his hand and started staring at the moons reflection in the sea, admiring it as it rippled with the waves.

"What do ya' think of barrier blastias then, kid?" The man asked.

Yuri's face showed a look of confusion, but he still didn't turn around to look at his conversational partner to see if he was a madman or not.

"I guess they're alright."

"Ya' know, people spend so long buildin' em', and they use 'em to protect themselves from things that hurt 'em, and if the barrier is broken down they start buildin' it up again because they don't wanna risk gettin' hurt, but sometimes they don't fix it properly, they just trust their instincts and when they get hurt, they carry on buildin'."

"Thank you for stating the obvious, old man."

"Just keep what I said in mind, people like us have a lot in common with them barriers, we can't be isolatin' ourselves from the whole of humanity or those who wanna help."

Yuri looked down to his feet which were slowly swinging back and forth, the metal boots reflected the light which shone from the moon, and he bit his lip softly as the thought about what the anonymous man was saying.

"Hey, old man, what's your name?" He asked, turning around to face the person he'd been talking to.

"It don't matter." He replied as he started walking away, his unruly and knotty ponytail slowly bounced up and down as he walked, and his purple cloak swayed softly in the breeze as he disappeared into the nearest tavern, leaving the young man outside by himself to survey the stars and the barriers that glistened in the horizon.

* * *

**I hope you guys like this chapter, I personally, do somewhat like this, because I've managed to vent how I've been feeling for a while now, without having to talk to someone about it and then worry that they're going to tell someone. This is where I got the idea to link barrier blastia to people, because we have barriers ourselves, and we only let in people that we trust, and if we don't trust them, or don't want to be around them, we build a barrier around ourselves, letting them know that they aren't welcome.**

**And Flynn's experience with the sword was based around the time I picked up a blade for the first time in my life and used it on myself. I would have mentioned this before, but I didn't want to spoil it for you guys.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter more than the last one, I don't know if I'll be able to give you all quick updates, because I have exams, then I'm going caravanning with my best friend for a week, then I'll be back for a bit, then I'll be setting off for Ty Newydd to do a creative writing trip with school, so I'm sorry if you'll be waiting a while for any new chapters, I hope it won't happen, I absolutely hate how long you guys have waited for these two chapters.**

**Please leave some lovely reviews, and again, I'm sorry if it's not the best quality, it was another mass-produced one. ^^;**

**~FantasyXDayDreamer.**


	12. Chapter 13

**Hey! Remember me? ^-^**

**No, I'm not dead! :D Sorry for the veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slow update! I've had a lot on, or been to busy, or I've just been procrastinating too much. And I've also learnt a lot of valuable lessons about life. Of course they were bloody awful lessons that I'd love to forget, and that I wish had never happened, but they've been and gone, and they've taught me a lot. Anyway, I'll stop there before I lose myself in all this ranting. **

**For those of you that don't know, Corey Taylor is my most favourite person in the whole world, and I absolutely love every piece of music he makes, so anyway, today I was listening to Audio Secrecy, the most recent album by his band Stone Sour, and I got a few ideas flowing, especially from the song Threadbare, which is the last album on the track, if you look at the lyrics, there are quite a few that describe the relationship and the past that I have put in for these two characters. I don't think I've written that much, but I think I've managed to say a fair bit. But yeah, quite a short chapter, probably not the best I could have written, but considering I finished it in about an hour and a half, seeing as I was determined to get it up (heh.) ASAP, I typed as much as I could as quickly as possible. I don't think I'll be able to change the length of this chapter, as there is nothing else I could have covered without dragging it out too much.**

**So anyway, I really hope you enjoy this.**

**Old readers; Thank you for waiting for so long for this update! I seriously hope it was worth the wait, and I'm very sorry it was a bloody long one!**

**Also; I just want to give a future warning - Yuri's potty mouth will probably get worse in future chapters, I'll have to see where I take him into the story. **

**~FantasyXDayDreamer**

* * *

_And in all this time,_

_I never wanted to destroy someone like you..._

_(Threadbare - Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy)_

Flynn picked at the fresh bandage he had wrapped around his hand earlier, occasionally stopping to poke the wound that he had spent about half an hour dabbing with a wet tissue until the bleeding calmed before applying the said bandage a few minutes after the blood stopped leaking through the wound. He was completely lost in his own world, feeling reasonably content as he continued to pick at the bandage, until he heard the door to his room slam; followed by irritated grumbles from the younger, dark haired knight he had the honour of sharing the room with. Flynn rolled his eyes as the door made the slamming sound and as he listened to the boy rant under his breath to himself.

"Shut the door," Flynn said sarcastically.

"Shut up." Yuri replied, not even looking at Flynn as he made his way to his own bed, continuing to mumble about an old man and wondering _"how the fuck Barrier Blastias are relevant to human fucking beings. _

Flynn sighed as he heard mostly swearwords escaping his roommate's mouth. From what the blonde knew, Yuri had never usually mumbled to himself when he was annoyed or when he had much on his mind, he'd only known his reactions to be screaming at anyone and anything, or to just try and push everyone away.

"Must be something he developed when I wasn't around." Flynn thought to himself before he shrugged and carried on attending to the bandage, trying to zone out again so he didn't have to listen to the knight talk to himself.

It hadn't taken long at all until Yuri's mumbling had completely phased out from Flynn's hearing, and he carried on admiring the white material, until he noticed the younger knight giving him odd looks; his eyes narrowed and lips pursed tightly, in the corner of his eye. Flynn stopped fiddling with the bandage and turned his head to look at Yuri in the eyes, and even though he knew Yuri was looking directly back into his, Flynn felt almost as if Yuri was just staring right through him: like Yuri had just noticed something on the wall ahead of him, instead of Flynn. Or maybe it was just Flynn trying to convince himself that he officially meant nothing to the person who had once considered him his everything. They both sat in silence, staring at one another as if they were something completely supernatural. Flynn felt himself slowly zone out again as he looked deeper into Yuri's charcoal eyes, sensing absolutely no emotion, no light, nothing. It was like Flynn was just looking at two pieces of charcoal.

"What's with the bandage?" Yuri asked in a monotone voice, breaking the silence which had been in the atmosphere for what almost felt like forever.

"Ah," Flynn thought out loud, biting his lip and staring at his feet as he tried to think of a believable lie. "I tripped and held on to the first thing that would support me, sadly the first thing I'd actually got a hold of was my sword. It didn't help. And besides, _you're _the klutz. Not me, don't know what went wrong." He said, almost too quickly, as he added a shaky laugh to the end of his sentence. "Fuck, Flynn. You're the worst liar _ever._" He thought to himself, instantly being able to tell Yuri had read him like a book.

"Bullshit." Yuri said in response, curling his lip, "Absolute bullshit. Do you think I'm stupid, Flynn? You could have just saved yourself the fucking breath and actually told me the truth. Or am I not fucking worth the truth?"

"No, I don't think you're stupid! At all! It's just-"

"Just _what, _Flynn? I have _all _night to listen!" Yuri yelled, standing up and walking towards Flynn's bed, glaring down at him. In response to this, Flynn stood up, and even though he was slightly taller, and definitely stronger than Yuri, the dirty looks he was receiving hadn't faded away. Flynn growled at the shorter youth and shoved him away.

"Oh piss off, you wouldn't understand! You don't know what it's like to feel so alone!"

"More fucking bullshit! Who the fuck was left by themselves because the only person they had ran back to their precious little daddy? Because it wasn't fucking you! And who the fuck was always in shit, always looked down upon until they brought that bloody precious blonde-haired, blue eyed angel back with him? And then who received pity because that fucking 'angel' decided that they had better places to be, and then was put right back to square one with everyone hating them because they weren't fucking good enough? That _definitely _wasn't you!"

Flynn stared in shock at the boy; a pair of eyes had broken out from the two pieces of charcoal that were there before. Tears were building up in those dark eyes, but were held back by the owner of them as he clenched his teeth tightly; forcing himself not to let himself cry in front of the bastard he didn't even want to give a name to. Even though the boy's voice and brow showed absolute fury, the rest of him made him look so vulnerable, so hurt, so closed off. Flynn felt his heart sink as he looked down at the bandage on his hand. If anyone had the right to hurt themselves, or to actually hurt Flynn himself, it should have been Yuri. He had no idea what to say to his outburst, so he left his mouth slightly open, breathing softly as he listened to the other boy's heavy breathing, probably trying to catch his breath back due to his yelling without pausing to inhale. Flynn felt the need to wrap his arms around Yuri's shoulder and tell him that everything was going to be just fine, and tell him to calm down. That always worked with him when he was younger whenever he had had a nightmare or got himself worked up, but those days had gone, and if Flynn even approached him now, he'd probably end up with a fist to the face, so instead he watched as the now vulnerable Yuri closed his eyes and slowed his breathing down, before heading back to his bed and sitting on it. Flynn sighed before going back to his own bed and taking his nightclothes from underneath his pillow before heading to the bathroom to get changed, leaving the boy from his childhood to calm himself down.

...

That night, Yuri lay awake in bed, still thinking about what that man he had met earlier had said: "_...and if the __barrier is broken down they start buildin' it up again because they don't wanna risk gettin' hurt, but sometimes they don't fix it properly, they just trust their instincts and when they get hurt, they carry on buildin'."_

It was when those words went over and over in Yuri's head, along with what he had said to Flynn earlier, that had made him realise that as a child, he had no barrier, and he just let Flynn stroll in and take care of everything for him, and once he strolled back out again, the feelings and memories that overwhelmed and destroyed him made him start to develop a barrier, just to make sure that the bastard that did this in the first place didn't get back inside. Of course, there's still a long way to go, now that he's stumbled across him again, but as long as the barrier goes up and stays up, then he knows he'll be fine.

After concluding those thoughts, Yuri turned onto his side, facing the window and smiled to himself slightly, proud that he managed to decode the metaphors that the crazy old guy was using. Even though he was probably drunk, or maybe he was just a bit lost inside his own head and let a random train of thoughts go out loud. But either way, those words had stayed with Yuri and were now decoded, which meant he could make the most of the few hours sleep he'd been denying himself. He buried his face in the pillow, making himself comfortable, still smiling slightly; feeling secure in knowing that he wouldn't let himself become so open to someone ever again.

* * *

**Ba-boom! Managed to put some of my own feelings in at the end there. **

**Anyway, I hope the wait for the next chapter doesn't drag out as long as this one did - I am unbelievably sorry about that! To be honest - I'm surprised I still remember my log-in for this site! **

**Thanks for reading,** **I hope you enjoyed it! (It probably wasn't worth the long wait - but hey, I still hope it was good!)**

**~FantasyXDayDreamer**

**(Also, I'm starting to think that no one actually even reads the bold bits in this fanfic... It wouldn't surprise me, I do ramble a lot sometimes...)**


	13. Chapter 14

**Well, hellooooo there! (If any of my old readers still use this website!)**

**In all honesty, I completely forgot about this website, and this fic, until today when I decided to replay Tales of Vesperia, as I've finally found myself getting bored of the Elder Scrolls (for now!).**

**And also, even though I'm ahead of my work, I'm still stuck in overloaded-student mode, which basically means, I'm so used to staying up late to finish work, that I stay up late even when I have none, so I thought I might as well see if I still have it in me to write this again. (I don't, in my opinion!)**

**So yeah, if you're an old reader, welcome back, and I'm sorry to keep you waiting, if you've not given hope up on my existence, or this fic, I wouldn't be surprised if you have!**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter, and I will definitely be getting round to replacing old chapters with more detailed, better, and obviously, re-written ones, as I am rather embarrassed by them now! So yeah, keep an eye out for those! I hope this chapter is okay! Leave me reviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ews!**

**-FantasyXDayDreamer**

* * *

With the words from the old man, that wasn't really that old in all fairness, still whirring around in Yuri's head. For a guy who probably had more to drink than Yuri himself that night, he spoke a lot of sense. Or he just came up with it out of the blue, and Yuri was giving a completely irrelevant and unnecessary analysis of the saying. What bothered Yuri the most was that these words were said to him three days ago. Three whole days. It was just a load of slurred words from a man he had never met in his life, and already he'd started to question himself and this uneven relationship with Flynn, along with the bitterness and resentment he still carried on his shoulders with him. He certainly dwelled on the past too much, that was for sure. He smiled to himself and shook his head. People constantly told him he was too stubborn and he always held grudges when they were either not necessary or just way in the past, and a saying about fucking barriers made him realize that they were right.

He made a mental note to buy the guy a drink next time he saw him around; for all he knew, he could pick up more valuable knowledge that took him down a three-day journey to make him realize how much of a bastard he could be once he put his mind to it. Shame the only thing he could remember was a purple cloak and a bunch of messy hair, but then again, it wasn't exactly a common look. Not around cities in which citizens living under the empire lived anyway. He'd be screwed if it was a "guild-look". Enough thinking. Yuri knew it was time to apologize to Flynn; finally. Grabbing a load of his hair and pulling it back into a reasonably neat ponytail before picking his sword up, which he inconveniently left in the middle of the room, he headed out into the corridor, with plenty of time to spare before training, or finding out about their next mission, which, annoyingly enough for Yuri, they were told about at the last minute. For now, though, it really was time for Flynn to receive a well deserved apology, as not everyone could put up with the irritating, sarcastic asshole that was Yuri Lowell.

...

Furious was an understatement. For three days, Flynn had been completely blanked by his roommate, and so called "closest and oldest friend", and then all of a sudden, the one and only claimed friend and infamous ass approaches him with a pathetic excuse for an apology. An apology with meaning, all the same; which was something that even he knew was quite a rare thing to occur in everyday life, and life in general, but still, an unbelievably pathetic excuse for an apology. Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, the model knight in training let out a deep sigh, shaking his head before he spoke.

"Yuri fucking Lowell, is that really your idea of an acceptable apology?" He asked, rhetorically, before he carried on speaking. "The thing with you is, you don't think before you do _anything_. Yes, I get that I abandoned you for my dad, Yuri. I was a_ kid_. A kid that missed his dad, who thought he'd never see him again. I don't think you understand how much I missed you. Or how much I appreciate what you did for me, but it was my own father. It was in the past, I was young, I didn't think. You still had the Lower Quarter, when he… passed on, I was lost. I bet you weren't."

Flynn took a deep breath soon after he'd spoken, trying to keep the same tone of controlled anger flowing throughout everything he was saying, which was more than a difficult task when it came to speaking to the dark-haired boy stood before him, who now looked completely speechless, and in all honesty, a little guilty.

"If I was not put on a pedestal for being a credited training knight, I would kick your ass, right in front of all these people, and shove that sword so far up – Morning." Flynn nodded, as a fellow knight he'd recognized from training walked past, trying to act as if nothing in particular was happening.

"Look, Flynn, I _am _sorry. I'm sorry for not understanding what you went through, and making it about me, me, me. A guy learns to depend on himself and resent everyone around him. In other words, I'm an ass, and I'm fully aware of it. That aside, what do you say we let bygones be bygones, hm?" He asked, holding his hand out for the other to shake, hoping that he would.

"I… I'm only forgiving you for the sake of our fellow knights. The last thing we need is two squabbling knights on the squad who can't be trusted together for more than five minutes, especially with how things are going at the moment. I agree, you're an ass, and you need to be careful with your words and actions, in the future." Flynn replied, after a short moment of hesitation. He then held his hand out and shook hands with Yuri, hoping he was being serious with the whole "let bygones be bygones" saying, the last thing they both needed was one of them bringing up the past for the sake of winding up the other.

"One more thing, Scifo." Yuri added, once the handshake was broken off. "First round of drinks are on me tonight, if you're up for it."

...

To say training that went on that day was rough, was definitely an understatement, even by Flynn's standards. Even though he wasn't exactly a big drinker, and didn't approve of Yuri actually heading out to a place where Imperial Knights weren't exactly welcome, he felt like the promised drink was definitely well-earned. It may even give them a chance to have a proper sit down and a conversation, instead of having small-talk that eventually led into arguments. Flynn would say Yuri wouldn't dare start an argument or a fight in a public area, but that was stretching his expectations way too far.

It took Flynn a good half-hour before he finally found the tavern that Yuri had been talking about, he'd guessed that the dark haired knight was a regular, as he never seemed to be in the room that much, and it seemed to be one of the only ones that sat in the middle of nowhere, so he couldn't have stumbled across it while on a crawl with the other knights that tended to find drinking as a fun activity to do in their spare time. Flynn never saw the point, he saw how awful some of them looked the next morning, and how they looked as sick as a dog, or maybe, even more sick than that. They definitely sounded it.

"In your own time, Flynn." A sarcastic, and way too familiar voice, called out. Even though the smugness in his tone was enough to piss anyone off, Flynn felt slightly relieved to hear it. "You know, for a knight, someone who is meant to express bravery, you look terrified. It's just a drink in a tavern. No one's going to come up behind you and stab you." He added, a faint smirk made obvious on his features once he came properly into Flynn's sight.

"Sorry, Yuri, but unlike you, I find better things to do in my spare time, that don't involve drinking so much that I forget what I actually did for a pass time." He shot back, with an amused tone to his voice, so the other boy knew he was just teasing, because, who knew what could set him off. "So, what made you decide to try and get someone like me into drinking, Lowell?"

"I just wanted to buy a friend a drink, not a crime, is it?"

"Not at all."

The two headed into the crowded, and noisy tavern, and despite Flynn's utmost hatred towards the idea of alcohol, knowing that he'd earned the title of Yuri Lowell's friend again meant that the drink was probably going to be worth it. Hopefully.

* * *

**I have nothing else to say except sorry for the 25098268923 year long wait, and to keep an eye out for the updated chapters, which I will _force _myself to do! So yeah, that's all, thank you!**

**Leave me lovely reviews! **


	14. Update

**Well, hello again!**

**If my old readers couldn't tell, I replaced my first chapter and wrote a new one before disappearing off the face of the earth again, because that's just the sort of thing that I do. :(**

**I'm currently stuck in bed with the flu, and due to all m****y other Xbox games driving me crazy, I have started replaying ToV, and I have to say, it's giving me serious nostalgia.**

**Its also made me realise that I should seriously start rewriting all the old chapters now, as the ones following the first now don't make sense, and look a little crappy. :(**

**So, this is just an update to say I'm back, my writing will probably be a bit rusty, but I'm back and determined to update this. **

**An updated chapter 2 has been added, so I hope you like that! I am currently working on the next chapter for all the old readers who are still on this site and actually still reading this, along with a chapter 3. I'm having to go about all this really carefully, because after realising how blunt my old chapters were, I'm going to have to write all my updated chapters with close detail so I don't screw up the whole flow of this and end up rewriting the whole thing!**

**Thank you for reading!~**

**-FantasyXDayDreamer**


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